Horticulture
by xLilim
Summary: After Chrollo gives him the slip, Hisoka Morow detours to quell his bloodlust and discovers a powerful vagrant has killed one of his prey. Hunting the old man through the neon-bright city of Deene leads to an encounter with a powerful ex-assassin with a love of money that stirs something twisted in him that cannot be sated with a death match. HisokaOC
1. The Killer of Deene City

**DISCLAIMER** : Hunter x Hunter © Togashi Yoshihiro; Horticulture © me, Lilim.

 **WARNING** ( **S** ): Adult situations, coarse language, graphic depictions of sex, violence, and violent or rough sex. There will potentially be some OOC-ness until I adjust to the characters, but I'll try to work through it quickly. Also, shoddy nen stuff. Shout out to the Wikia for helping my poor brain along with all mentions of nen. I'll continue working on remedying the situation.

Please heed these warnings if you are easily offended. More specific warnings will be divulged when needed at the start of the chapters as required.

 **SHAMELESS PLUG** : If you enjoy this story, I welcome you to read **Arboriculture** , which is where I am compiling all side stories related to this one. You can find it by going into my profile.

* * *

 **Horticulture**

* * *

 **01**.

 _The Killer of Deene City_

* * *

"Saar Ozwell? You haven't heard? She's dead. Who did it? That's an odd question. No need to glare, it was some vagrant off the street. Beat her to death. Where did it happen? Hmmm, where was it? Oh! That big city with all the bright lights—full of casinos and bars? What's the name again? Yes, yes, Deene City, that's the one! It happened there."

Hisoka Morow prowled the luminous Deene City. Chrollo Lucilfer had given him the slip last night and it'd take him a day to track him down again, so he entertained the idea of a detour—an aperitif—with an overdue challenge against Saar Ozwell. Two years ago, Hisoka allowed her to live and urged her to nurture the potential he saw in her, but he overestimated her if she met death. He didn't take pleasure in being wrong about his prey, but in dismantling the details surrounding Ozwell's death, he obsessed over the vagrant that murdered her.

He observed the lively tourists and inhabitants of the colorful Deene City. Rainbow neon signs set the crowded streets ablaze. The popular casinos spilled onto the sidewalk in the form of brawling men clutching the last of their jenny in a fist and jerking away from the grips of security. Private clubs for all manner of debauchery hid in plain sight, among strip clubs blaring music that filtered past their padded doors like a mist that engulfed the senses and rowdy bars swarming with night dwellers guzzling down alcohol to appease their sorrow or fuel their rage.

Hisoka slipped into the darkness of its inner city. Comprised of the interconnected alleys behind restaurants, casinos, and sleazy establishments existed a world once rumored to have been governed by one of the Ten Mafia Dons. Crowds thinned into sparse groups of esteemed individuals indulging their darkest desires within the security of members-only shops. He roamed the area for as long as he remained unnoticed, but even using _zetsu_ , he sensed a shadow creeping behind his every step.

He returned to his hotel room after an unsuccessful hunt. He dropped into bed, his hair still wet from a shower, and scrolled through the information he gathered on the vagrant. The older man racked up a high bounty in a matter of weeks. A difficult catch, last spotted in Deene City because there were places where deaths went unnoticed and he could practice his craft.

Hisoka frowned. He let his arm fall over the bed along with his phone, its backlight melting into darkness around a name: Peter.

The following morning, Hisoka found the vagrant in tattered clothes in front of a boarded-up restaurant on an outer part of the city. The wizened man shook a tin cup at every person that walked past him and grumbled insults at everyone that shot him a dirty look.

 _A nen-user._ Hisoka felt the vagrant's power blooming in the marrow of his bones and licked his upper lip, savoring the small taste of the man's contained power. _Seven. No, a nine._ The homeless man stared into his cup with glimmering eyes as though it were a portal to a fortune.

He looked up straight into Hisoka's face.

 _Oh._ He noticed. _I wasn't very careful. Oops._

Hisoka sensed the rise of the wall dividing them.

The old man stood on shaky legs, pocketed his spoils, and blended into the stream of people headed to the main road.

Hisoka pursued him into an alley. Bloodlust oozed from him like a miasma. He stalked him through every twist and turn, the adrenaline built up inside of him, until he lost him. Hisoka paused in the middle of rotting piles of garbage behind the cluster of restaurants and bars. The putrid scent of spoiled meat and fruit stung in his nostrils, forcing its way inside him. The old man's presence vanished, but his emotions betrayed him as the vagrant drop kicked Hisoka.

Hisoka parried with an arm. The weight and power behind the assault left his forearm throbbing.

The man flipped backward, landing into a fighting stance. This killer had the grace of a trained martial artist and it appeared to him that all of the information he gathered on the old man was wrong.

"Your bloodlust gives you away, boy," the man said, voice deep and gruff with hints of a foreign accent. "What do you want?"

Hisoka's lips twitched into a smile, his intent slipped as he drew the four of spades from his deck of cards. This wasn't an ordinary killer. "You killed my prey."

The vagrant didn't flinch when Hisoka's malice engulfed the alley. He couldn't read the old stranger.

"You don't look like the type that cares."

"I don't." Hisoka stepped forward and made the four of spades disappear with a gesture. "I planned to reap the benefits of my patience."

"Sounds like a creepy hobby, kid. Find yourself a new one."

"I'm looking at it."

The stranger appeared before Hisoka and grabbed a hold of him—an iron grip on all of him, dick and balls. Hisoka's breath caught in his throat. One wrong move and he'd become a eunuch. If the fight proved worth it, he'd risk losing a limb or two, but he considered his precarious position. He had two arms and two legs. He had _Bungee Gum_ and _Texture Surprise_. Would it impair function to his dick if he reattached it as he would an arm or leg? No, for Machi's _Nen Stitches_ this was a simple feat. Her reaction to the situation would be worth the loss.

"Then line up," the man said, his voice changed into a deep feminine sound.

The grip on his junk tightened as excitement coiled in his stomach. _An assassin?_ He was certain of it. Someone good at disguises. There wasn't even a hint of a woman in the wrinkled face that stared up at him, blue eyes framed by bushy, furrowed eyebrows.

"I don't accept free challenges. Perverts are double. You look like you'd put me out for a couple of weeks, so quadruple."

"You wouldn't live long enough to enjoy the money," said Hisoka, confident though tempted to pay her price. He wouldn't lose, but should he kill her now or kill her later. He gauged her power, but what he felt like static under his skin wasn't its entirety.

If he overestimated her and she died fast, he wasted his time. Not worth it. Better to wait.

A glass bottle smashed into the back of the assassin's skull distracting Hisoka from his mind and the green shards fanned out, chittering to the floor.

In the split second when the bottle made contact with her head, forcing her into a stagger, Hisoka breathed her in. Her unbridled aura washed over him, scorched through his bloodstream and numbed his senses. A guttural, beastly sound left his lips, his eyes rolled back, and his skin chilled, goosebumps rising over its surface.

She would satisfy his hunger.

He sucked in a breath, equanimity slow to sink into his tingling body. He needed to shatter her into a thousand pieces, grind her into dust and inhale her.

"Where's my goddamned money, Peter?"

The disguised woman released him. She whirled around and sprung off the ground, avoided Hisoka's weakening reach. Silver caught in the sun as she dropped in front of the drunken man outside the alleyway and landed in a crouch with a dagger buried in her overcoat.

Blood spluttered from the man's neck and he fell forward into a heap of garbage. The assassin was gone before the man's body hit the ground.

Hisoka shuddered. This wasn't enough. _Calm down. You can track her now, track her later._

" _Tsk_."

She vanished from his radar.

 _Calm down. I can find her later._


	2. Poppy Starling

**WARNING** ( **S** ): This chapter contains depictions of erotic asphyxiation and blood play. Read at your own discretion.

* * *

 **Horticulture**

* * *

 **02**.

 _Poppy Starling_

* * *

Hisoka's skin quivered. He tasted the abundance of the vagrant's aura wrapped tight around her flesh and he desired to sink his teeth into her, tear into her until the life slithered out with her blood. His cock responded, pressed uncomfortably against his pants.

He shifted on the bar stool and drank deep of the chilled liquor in his hand, the ice cubes clinked together over his upper lip. He pictured himself in a tundra, his body whipped by freezing winds, and kittens on fire. He forced the taste of vomit back on his lips after exceeding the limits of his liquor tolerance, but the disguised assassin's aura drifted to him like a spray of peach perfume before fading into a plethora of overpowering colognes tinged with sweat.

It took him half a day to find the assassin. She appeared skilled at disappearing acts but weak in following through. She grew lazy and frequented the same haunts dressed as an old, toothless vagrant. She gambled the money she picked up on the streets with a different woman at her side cupping a handful of ass with every lecherous laugh that left her lips.

Hisoka found her at a private bar he bought his way into. The semi-crowded establishment sat in the uppermost floor of a high-rise building that overlooked the neon city lights across the emerald sea that divided Deene City from Abott, a melting pot of luxury and expensive hobbies. Stars cast blurred shapes along the calm water currents and the moon hid behind storm clouds promising a cold night, good for hunting.

He watched the woman through her reflection in the floor-to-ceiling windows. She discarded her disguise. She donned a slim dress fitted for the curves of her lean physique, wore her thick golden hair in waves that cascaded down her back, and sunglasses that framed her face. Her behavior was strange. She released waves of malevolent aura in five-minute intervals as she moved to calculated locations inside the bar, dispelling every crowd she approached. She debilitated many as she walked, some collapsed and a few vomited but blamed it on their alcohol.

Spite. He tasted it, bitter like an unripe grapefruit, persistent on his tongue and numbing—a callous, cold aura. The control she exerted over the amounts she released was wonderful, like a beacon in darkness.

Hisoka's bloodlust pierced her.

She didn't react. She showed no indication that she felt a difference in the room's ambiance. Should it thrill him to be ignored or annoy him that her impassivity meant he wouldn't get what he wanted?

She continued to meander, sipping at her martini. She picked the olive out from within the clear liquid and bit into it, the alcohol dripping a fine line from between her lips. She deposited her empty glass on a server's platter and slipped towards the exit like a panther entering familiar territory.

Hisoka followed her into the elevator outside the bar. She pressed the lobby button and asked him for a floor. He crowded her, seeking a reaction, for even a miniscule change in her body language, but she remained lax, her back to him.

The metal doors swished shut with a ding.

Hisoka leaned forward, the heat of her body radiated against his chest, and whispered, "Your bloodlust gives you away."

A smile curved her pouty pink lips. "I'm hunting."

He savored the pinprick of his skin as another wave of her aura pulsated through him. "This is sloppy work for an assassin."

"Not a Hunter?"

"No, not a Hunter."

She hummed appreciatively. She didn't deny that she was an assassin.

"If you have this much time to spare chasing away your prey, you should play a game with me," he said.

"I'm not into clowns, sorry."

Hisoka laughed. How wrong she was! "You're misunderstanding—"

"No, I'm not," she said, sliding the sunglasses to the top of her head. She stared at him through thick lashes and the sly smile on her lips didn't wane. "If you have something worth offering, change my mind. If not, I insist we don't start anything."

She pressed the button to the next floor they approached. The doors split open and revealed the gaudy décor on the sixth floor. The sultry whispers of the party guests drunk on the luxe atmosphere of their gala and their expensive champagne drifted to his ears. He took the woman by the throat and pushed her against the wall.

The doors shut and the elevator descended.

Hisoka grinned, his patience fleeting in her presence—powerful, boiling beneath its clamoring lid. Her sort required provocation.

She laughed and grabbed him by the wrist.

"Fight me," he told her.

"Indulge me, clown, what do I gain from fighting you?"

This was a kindred spirit. Deceptive, unbearably misleading. She resisted the fight, but her eyes brightened with interest. She gathered her aura protectively around her body.

He tightened his grip on her and she did the same to his wrist. Her heeled feet sat between his. Little distance separated them from her thinly clothed body. Kill her now or kill her later.

"How much?" he asked. She wouldn't live long enough to enjoy the money. He lost nothing.

She handed him a card with what he assumed had her account number. "Payment is upfront and I decide the terms."

The elevator halted, the ground under them shuddering, and the metal doors swished open with the sound of a bell.

"Poppy!" came the shrill protest of a man in the lobby.

She cursed. She forced his hand from her neck with surprising ease and chased the balding man across the lobby. "I can explain!"

Hisoka stepped out into the crowded room and watched the dramatic scene unfold like the rest of the people present.

The man threw his drink in her face and kicked her out of his home. She begged and reached for the man, but one of his guards stepped in between them. He cracked his hand hard across her face, though the force was not enough to move her, it paralyzed the room. She persisted, attempted to blame Hisoka. She claimed he attacked her, but the man denied her. Not even a proclamation of love coupled with her tears turned him around.

Hisoka approached the pitiful woman. She stank of strawberry wine, her wig sat lopsided, and her heavy make-up smudged, running black down her cheeks.

"I thought you didn't like clowns," he teased.

She turned away with the click of her tongue, oozing her delicious aura.

Hisoka resisted the urge to challenge her. Provocation worked well for her kind—those who lied about the dark urges that crawled from the depths of their souls. As he assessed, a kindred spirit, though a resistant one, someone that thrilled on the kill and the slaying of powerful opponents, someone that had not yet met her match…until he snuffed the life out of her. Her pride shattered, face twisted in shock—yes. He would savor that look.

"So, where were we?" he asked, sauntering closer to her.

"I want a shower, dinner, and a comfortable bed to sleep in for the night," she said. "If you want to fight after that, fine, I'll take you on, but if I win, you leave me alone."

He leaned forward to her ear. "I want a death match."

Her shoulders tensed. Was it a result of the implication or was she sensitive to his proximity? No. If there were the slightest hint of sexual energy between them, he would've felt it. Maybe, he already had in that elevator with her pale neck in his hand and her grip on his wrist. Their bodies close enough that the natural heat passed between them with her delicate aura wound tight around her, protective against his overbearing bloodlust—his desire to take her on in battle so intense that his cock harden.

"I don't disappoint," he said.

She sucked in a shuddering breath, her voice lingered softly in a misty cloud in front of her lips. "Give me what I want."

Hisoka brought her to his hotel room and left her at the bathroom's threshold as she wiggled out of her dress. He brought her back a slice of red velvet cake and a six-pack of beers to provoke her. She greeted him naked at the door. Her wet brown hair twisted over her shoulder, clinging to her white flesh. A large faded scar ran across her navel. Another sat over her left shoulder. Bruises covered her body, over her thighs, but the violent red rings wrapped around her neck like a collar demanded his attention.

He had taken her by the neck in the elevator, but not enough to bruise her. He hadn't seen them before.

"Are you trying to seduce me?" he asked.

She shifted her weight onto her left and put her hands on her hips with a grin. "Wasn't it a misunderstanding?"

He locked the door behind him and left the plastic bag on the floor. He felt her exploring hands assessing him as he undressed, learning the shape of the muscles that molded to his body.

Her hands slid down his back and she grabbed his ass, kissing the surface of his shoulder blade. "Impressive."

Hisoka traced the uneven skin over her shoulder when she paused before him and moved the back of his fingers up her neck to twist into her damp hair. He forced her head back and listened to the hiss in her voice as she buried her nails in his arm. She squirmed but she didn't resist.

He bruised her lips with a kiss and guided her to the bed. Her low moans vibrated on his tongue. Her body yielded to him, her legs wrapped snug around his body. His erection dug into her inner thigh and he burned with a newfound desire to fuck her. It wouldn't kill them to indulge in one last romp before she died. He was curious about her nen. He mused with the idea that her aura was a transmutation type, like his. How did she mold it? What shape did it take? How did it work? He couldn't imagine, but in thinking of it, he fixated on her aura and its strength. Chills ran through him in circles. The way that her malice kissed his skin at the bar sent more blood rushing to his cock.

Hisoka raked his long nails across her erect nipples, played with them—flicked and pinched them. He sucked and kissed her scar, loving the bumpy imperfect texture of it against his lips mingling with the saltiness of her skin. He sank his teeth into the scarred flesh, piercing through the soft skin. She cried out, her voice a sensual sound in his ear, and her body twisted under his. She grabbed fistfuls of his hair and jerked him back.

He laughed.

"Who gave you permission to bite?" she asked.

"You did," he said, molding his palm to her breast, massaging it in slow circles. He dipped low, mouth poised over her other breast. He kissed the erect peak. "You have terrible taste."

He focused on her breasts. He took her nipple into his mouth, sucked and licked it as he tugged and rolled the other between his fingers. Her grip on his hair loosened the more time he devoted to her. Slight movements that hinted at discomfort, a flare of her aura infused with lust, and the pleasured noises leaving her were indications that whatever he was doing in his slow, teasing actions were the right thing to do. He paid more attention to her other breast. He was more attentive, rougher, careless with the pink nipple he rolled in his tongue and pinched between his teeth. Her responses grew, not as vocal as he wanted, but loud enough that he savored the change in pitch.

Hisoka left a trail of bite marks down her navel until he reached her smooth mons.

She rose on her elbows and shot him a warning look. "You bite me there and I'll kick you in the face."

He parted her vulva for a taste of her wet flesh and she sank into the bed, expelling a breath that worked its way through her body. He would've advised her to keep her guard up, but where was the thrill in that? She had brain cells in her head even though she gave off the feeling that she was an idiot in bed. He didn't mind that. She gave in to her desires, meaning they were important to her.

Hisoka fucked her with his tongue, rubbed her clit with his thumb as he did, and made her moan. He memorized her taste. He'd enjoy fucking her. He'd rub a couple out to this—to her writhing body and arching back as pleasure clawed into her. She clutched the sheets until her knuckles blanched. Her legs quivered against his body.

She met his gaze, her blue irises darkened with her fast approaching orgasm, and she gasped. He switched the positions of his mouth and finger, thrusting two inside of her to suck on her tremulous clit.

She threw her head back. "I'm close!"

She moved her hips to meet the shallow thrusts of his fingers. He felt the instant she was about to orgasm and bit the red skin near her clit. She came, hard, screaming in a blend of pain and pleasure.

Hisoka bore the impact of her kick as it broke his nose. The large concentration of pain distributed through his body in a wave that left him craving another blow. This wasn't her full strength.

She curled in bed cupping her wounded genitals and cried. "That fucking hurt, you animal!"

"It didn't sound like it did." He saw the marks of his teeth on her skin as she rubbed the area. He pushed his nose back in place. The blood flowed down his chin, staining the mattress as he pulled the woman by the ankle closer to him. "You can do mine."

"Not afraid I'd bite?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

Hisoka sat back at the foot of the bed and she crawled over to him. She wrapped her hand around the base of his cock and stroked its length, getting a feel for it. Would she retaliate? And if she did, did that mean he got a free shot? Did he care if she bit his dick? He considered the pain, but no, not really, as long as she wasn't biting it off.

She rose on her knees and wrapped a hand over the nape of his neck. She licked the seam of his lips and he parted them, accepting her bloody kiss. He pressed his tongue against hers and delighted in the coppery taste, in the thick scent of violence and sex blending into one. She worked the length of his cock with a skillful grip. She pumped him nice and slow, matching the rhythm of their kiss.

She drew back, his tongue lingering outside his mouth dripping bloody saliva down his chin. She peppered kisses down his neck and chest, crouching down to lick the pre-cum from the tip of his dick. She sucked him in, released him, and licked the base of his hardened shaft. She massaged his balls as she repeated the process, teasing him.

Hisoka grew hotter, watching her. She brought him into her mouth and moved until she grew accustomed to his size, then robbed him of breath as she took him to the base. He groaned, the back of her throat tightened around him. She made appreciating sounds as she bobbed her head up and down his length, the sensations ran from his throbbing dick to every nerve in his body. And she started fingering herself, moaning and slobbering over his cock. His muscles locked tight and his breathing shallowed. Her ass waved around in the air like bait and he wanted to tear into her. Fuck her until her knees buckled, until she cried and clawed into his skin leaving behind scars that he might remember her by after he killed her.

She devoured his cock as his hips buckled. She didn't jerk away when his seed spilled on her tongue. She sucked at the sensitive head, drinking him in as if she had thirsted for a taste, and left no drop go to waste.

"You're quick," she said, a saucy grin on her glistening lips. She sank into the mattress to pleasure herself, one hand massaging her breasts and the other between her thighs, rubbing her clit. Her soft breathy sounds invited him inside her.

Hisoka ripped the first condom he slipped on his erect cock, but the second one went on easier. He pinned her hands above her head.

"I was close," she whispered.

"I want to feel you cum around me."

Her warm insides yielded to his cock. She had been close.

He pushed her leg forward, adjusting into a new position, and she stretched her leg over his shoulder as he shoved his dick inside her to the base. She arched. Better.

Hisoka angled his thrusts until she gripped the sheets and moaned louder with each one. He indulged in the act, the small vibrations that her contracting insides produced along the length of him. He rammed into her deeper, satisfied with the friction that his tempo created. She burned hot, tightened so hard the closer she was to her climax that he had to slow. Her supple body breathed his cock in deep and it amused him that her body was so honest.

He fucked her hard, finishing once. He peeled the condom off and turned her over on her hands and knees. He pushed her head into a pillow and took her from behind. Her ass was tight. She cursed him, whined about the pain, but she relaxed to ease his entrance. He plunged into her, molding the inside of her ass to the shape of his cock. It was only fair to fuck her good before he killed her tomorrow.

The headboard slammed against the wall, peeling the paint at the edges and leaving the impression of the frame.

Hisoka raked his eyes across the healing lashes across her back. She played naughtier games than he thought. He leaned over her to kiss and suck on the back of her neck. He nipped the end of the jagged scar and pressed his face against it, listening to the rapid beat of her heart and her pleasured cries as if they were underwater. She met each of his thrusts, drawing him closer. His balls tightened before he released, slowing his movements as her groans faded into a whimper.

He sank back onto his haunches, his body glistening with sweat as he pushed the hair out of his face. He watched his cum spill from her pretty ass and drip down her leg. Her toned thighs quaked with what remained of her orgasm.

Hisoka kissed her ass. He hadn't had enough. She looked spent, her breaths slowed as if she were close to passing out. He pushed her back against the headboard. Her body bruised fast, his rough handling had started to surface on her pale skin. The teeth marks on her shoulder and nipples turned greenish purple. She glared at him.

"Are you going to hit me again?" he asked, thrilled by the prospect.

She punched him and knocked him back onto the bed.

White-hot pain bloomed across his battered cheek. He hadn't felt a hit like that in years.

"Warn me if you're going to shove your dick in my ass!"

He laughed. "Your ass was delicious."

She struck him a second time. It would've killed anyone normal. His dick hardened.

She straddled him and guided him back inside of her. She used him as she wanted while he remained motionless. He nearly saw white, his eyes almost rolled back, and the blood rushed to his cock. He could come from that alone if she had the sense to punch him a third time. She worked him hard and with her in control, he reached a deeper part of her that made her bite her lip to silence her moans.

Hisoka took her by the hips and pressed into that same place. Not even biting her lip helped her hold her voice back. She submitted, flattened against him, her drying brown hair tickling his shoulder.

He switched their positions and wrapped on hand around her neck. Her eyes darkened as they met his. He shoved inside of her once more and she grunted. He wanted to choke her. Not to death, but he wanted to watch the fear rise onto the surface of her blue eyes.

She brought the hand he had on her to the other side of her neck. "Do it," she said, breathless. "I'm close."

He waited on her body's signal, for when the orgasm grabbed hold of her and dragged her under to grip her neck. He covered the red marks on it with his hands and tightened. She quivered, making a mixture of pained choking sounds and moans, and her eyes unfocused. He came hard, rode his climax out until it dissipated with hers.

Hisoka released her neck and she inhaled sharply. The skin was bright red as she sat up with a grin. "You're not tired yet, are you?"

And he was breathing hard as if he'd had come out of an intense battle. "Not at all."

Hisoka fucked her until his stamina ran dry.

They slept in. He woke in the middle of the night to hydrate and sank into a seat at the edge of the bed, looking over at the assassin with her naked back to him, so stupidly vulnerable that he questioned whether she was even a hired killer or someone fortunate in the face of peril.

The chirp of a phone drew his attention to the glowing screen by his hand. He didn't recognize this communication device. He opened the message, read the word "Target" followed by coordinates not too far from Abott.

She snatched it from his hand, read the message, and deleted it. "Mind your own business."

"Shouldn't you write that down?"

She glowered. She slid out of bed and opened a can of alcohol.

She raised her can in his direction. "Cheers."

"What's your name?" asked Hisoka.

"That's rude, asking my name when you haven't even introduced yourself."

"Hisoka."

"Just Hisoka?"

"Why does that matter?"

"I just fucked you."

"So you did."

He suspected her insistence was meaningful. If it had anything to do with her nen ability, he'd welcome it.

"Morow," he said.

"Hisoka Morow." She presented her hand for him to shake. He did. "I'm called Pandora."

"Not Poppy?"

She shook her head.

"Just Pandora?"

She smiled. "Just Pandora."

"I have a list."

"Put me at the top. I was great."

She finished off her drink in three gulps and went for a second one.

Hisoka pulled her back against his chest and brushed his knuckles against the reddened bite marks. Her skin warmed, pocking with goosebumps. The wound had to have been deep to produce such a prominent scar. She was fortunate to have survived.

"Where did you get this?" he asked, his cheek pressed against the side of her head, the apple blossom shampoo of her hair invaded his senses. The second scar underneath her bellybutton looked like it had brought her closer to death a second time, something that deep was inflicted to spill her guts. He touched the uneven pink skin as she stepped out of his arms.

"My whore of a sister attacked me." She spotted the cake he brought her. "I'm going to find food."

She left the room naked.

Pandora returned hours later showered and dressed in dark pants and a slim-fitting jacket. She had a sandwich in her mouth and dumped several wallets onto the table.

"Not a lot of great food around," she said. "I hope you have a location ready for our fight." She smiled at him as she removed the money from the wallets. "Thought I had forgotten? I would've brought it up later, but I met a billionaire I want to snag by tonight."

"Aren't you overconfident?"

She stuffed the wad of cash in the back pocket of her pants. "I never lose."

She was his favorite type of opponent. Overconfident until he had them on their knees, staring up at him horrified as he delivered the final blow.

"Follow me."

Hisoka took her outside of Abott, to a large clearing, suitable for their fight. He was eager to see her abilities. She looked around with disinterest.

They widened the distance between them. She lunged first with her fists up, quick on her feet.

She aimed at his face, a right hook, but her body language hinted at a left strike to his solar plexus. He intended to block both, a forearm to take the hit of her hook and he caught her left hand.

She stepped down in front of him and raised her body kicking both legs up at his face.

He flipped forward, releasing her hand, and evaded her attack, landing several steps behind her. He turned with three cards infused with shu, sharp as any blade, and attached Bungee Gum to them before he threw them at Pandora. She ducked low to avoid them. He contracted his Bungee Gum, aiming at her back, but nothing happened. His cards froze inflight and fluttered to the ground.

The shock distracted him.

Pandora landed the first hit, the weight behind her fist heavier than the other punches he withstood from her. The sheer force of them would've snapped an ordinary man's head. He turned in midair and landed, attempting to use Bungee Gum again, but failed.

He whirled around to catch another of her punches, crushing her fist.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

She flashed him a toothy grin.

He grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into the ground, stone and dirt scattering around them.

Pandora laughed. "What's a good deathmatch without abilities?"

"Did you seal my nen?"

"I don't know. Maybe I sealed your nen and the next punch I throw at you will hurt more than all the others. Could even be fatal—"

He began to choke her but understood the validity of her statement. What was a good deathmatch without nen? He wasn't in top shape. This was the reason he went to great lengths to find someone to exorcise Kurapika's nen to ensure he had the match he wanted against Chrollo.

He released her.

"Undo it," he said, feeling the rise of something inhuman in him. Nen or no nen, he would obliterate her if she didn't fix this.

Pandora jumped to her feet. "No, and let me tell you why."

He swiped at her, but she stepped out of the way. She was right. He couldn't use nen at all.

"You'll only make it worse if you kill me."

Keep calm. "I can have it exorcised."

"Good luck with that."

Conditions had to be met for this ability. His name, he assumed was one given her insistence. Contact? Maybe. They had plenty before the fight and he touched her hand when he caught her fist. He wouldn't rule that out. Did she have to see it? He never noticed her use gyo. He wouldn't dismiss that either.

"I don't like death matches," she continued. "And before you assume that it's because I'm afraid of death, I'm not. You see, I'm a big fan of living—living life, luxuriously, and finding rich old men to give me all the money that I want with no questions asked. Thanks to you scaring away my last owner, I'm hunting for a new one, but I won't lie and say I didn't have any fun because you were a lot of fun, so much that I'll remember your face. I won't be making much use of my vagina or my asshole, but you won't be making much use of your nen, so I suppose we're even."

"I'm going to enjoy killing you," he said. He could probably overpower her physically, but where would the fun in that be?

"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I hope that when death comes, it'll be when I'm filthy rich in a comfortable mansion having the best orgasm of my life as I'm having a heart attack. You know, something dynamic. A little more than getting fucked into the mattress like you were doing, but hey, if you want to be that guy when I reach that level of rich, give me a call. I'll give you another go at me."

She winked at him.

As Hisoka watched her leave, her laughter ringing in his ears, he felt the slightest pang of regret. He should've killed her while he fucked her, but…the little he did manage to savor of their fight was marvelous and her ability was strange enough that it might mean she was a Specialist. Finding a way to counteract it should be interesting.

He pulled out his phone. He would need to hunt down that exorcist again for himself. As he went through his contacts he saw a new one that he hadn't added himself that read "Panda" and had a bear emoticon with a flower next to it.

He would kill her. Why let her live when she had become infinitely more interesting a subject for him to pursue? This wasn't over. Not yet.

Hisoka took a step forward and looked down at the wad of money under his shoe.


	3. You Remind Me of What I Wish You Were

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **03**.

 _You Remind Me of What I Wish You Were_

* * *

Hisoka tracked Pandora across the continent with laughable ease, eager to learn the secret of her ability and finish their fight. She either wanted to be found or she lacked survival skills—awareness in particular. She didn't notice he followed her vagabonding in her disguise, rattling her tin can at all passerby with snot dripping out of her nose, and he wasn't the only one shadowing her. A wild-haired youth that impressed him from his first Hunter Exam kept a close eye on the assassin, hiding where it would be impossible for her to be spotted. The youth never noticed him. She went on gathering information with a worry-stricken expression on her face, seeming to be in a perpetual debate on how or when to approach her prey.

Pandora rented a room at a rundown motel with her alms. She bought two meals with the leftovers and dressed in items she swiped out of clotheslines. She spent hours hunched over the clothes, pricking her fingers bloody to fit them to her body.

Her routine bored him. She slept in the arms of different men when she grew tired of asking for donations. None of them stayed, but this was her constant. She drank herself stupid with the money they left in an envelope on the nightstand to pay for her services and passed out in the streets. The shadowing youth stood by her, a loyal sentry, and she'd disappear as Pandora groaned out of slumber.

She wasn't lacking in skill to work in assassination and it'd buy her that expensive endgame fast, but she allowed herself to rust. She received an update on a target to her phone alluding to her activeness in the field, but she read and erased it. Unless she memorized the coordinates with a single glance, he didn't see her completing her task. He had not seen her kill anyone since their first encounter.

She came close three days past. A man heckled her on her way out of a bar, grabbed her wrist and jerked her to him as she was leaving with one of her rich old men, and her aura spiked with her frustration. The energy rattled in Hisoka's bones as though it wanted to rip his skeletal system out of his body. She slapped the man with reserved strength and a fight ensued. It ended with her crying on the ground in the fetal position, protecting her head from injury. She could've torn that man's spine from his body with ease. She wanted to, he tasted it in the quality of the air spiraling into a void that his corpse alone wouldn't be enough to fill, but she let it go. She didn't even return to kill him later.

The stalwart youth did. She tracked the man and sliced his neck open under an orb of moonlight. Hisoka considered changing his target. Pandora refused her calling, but the girl that shadowed her practiced it. She was skilled but clumsy. Her potential had a ceiling where it would cap out, but Pandora's was immense. No ceilings, just a boundless sky.

He craved spilling Pandora's blood in combat, yet she preferred vagabonding and sleeping with any man boasting a fortune. Money ruled her. If she got off her ass and killed for a living, she'd make more money, but what stopped her? A grin tugged at Hisoka's lips as he idled in the lobby on the second-floor landing of the motel where Pandora was staying. How long had she been chasing her dream? So that's it.

Pandora's shadow timed a run-in during Pandora's next outing.

"Sister!" cried the girl.

Pandora dragged the girl inside her room. "Stop sulking, Athena!"

Hisoka heard her door slam shut as he approached. He cast a long shadow across the entrance, the sisters' exchange clearing in his proximity. He chuckled when he listened to Pandora finish a sentence, "Protect me from this Hisoka creep."

His mind rushed back to his fight against Pandora, after he decided to hunt her since his anger ebbed once he was able to use nen again. Her ability had rules, limitations, and he planned to figure them out, defeat it. She relied on it so much that he believed it'd be satisfactory to see how she'd react when she learned she couldn't depend on it.

"I can stay with you?" asked Athena, her voice high with excitement.

"Just until he goes away."

"He's strong without his nen, but you're a lot stronger than him, so why haven't you gotten rid of him?"

"My ability is too draining."

Pandora opened the door.

Hisoka's smile widened as the humor drained from her face. He caught the door before she slammed it shut and invited himself inside, thrilled by the way Pandora slid in front of Athena and backed away, like a feral animal protecting its child.

She put on her best smile for him. "Hisoka, what a coincidence?"

"I thought you didn't know him!" snapped Athena.

Hisoka advanced to her. "Guess what I got back after a good night's rest? My nen. How's your ass?"

"Sore, but it works, just like your nen. Funny how life is, huh?"

Athena stared petrified.

A long silence stretched between them. The air, electric, as the tension between them settled and kicked up dust. Nobody moved. Every muscle in Hisoka's body wound tight, prepared for a surprise attack.

Slow, as the particles brushed the wooden floorboards, Athena hurled a rubbery black ball to the floor where it exploded into a thick cloud of propagating smoke, but Hisoka's reflexes were faster.

He anticipated Pandora's movements and buried his knee into her stomach. He caught her head, fingers twisted in her brown hair, and bared her neck.

Pandora's nails burrowed into his skin, a laugh escaped her lips.

Hisoka silenced her, teeth knocking against hers. She squirmed and nearly melted in his arms when he bit her lower lip. She stared at him as his hand snaked down the length of her back to grab her ass, pressing her body against his crotch. "You're rusty," he said. She had pride in her ability. What she lacked was motivation and he intended to wound her pride to fuel it. "Your trade is a different one now."

He released her and allowed the smog to swallow him. He sensed Athena reach Pandora and heard them escape through the window.

Excellent. That would do the trick.

* * *

Hisoka lingered in one of Pandora's usual haunts not expecting her to resurface so soon, but she returned to her barstool at the end of the counter guzzling down alcohol and complaining to the bartender that she was good at her job. Excellent, she said, waving her drink around so the clear liquid splashed onto the counter to her disdain. One of the bests! Dim yellow lights shone unflatteringly against her flushed skin and shiny sequin dress. Hisoka sat in a round table in one corner of the semi-crowded establishment mulling over the same bottle of beer that he ordered since he sat down two hours ago. Miniature lamps sat in the center of all the tables evenly distributed across the bar that glowed red as though they were floating orbs across a black sea.

Pandora's voice carried over well without Hisoka being close. She hadn't noticed he was in the bar either. He didn't know whether to be amused or disappointed. This went beyond rusty. Even someone out of practice would've spotted him. He wasn't hard to miss and he wasn't trying to hide.

She boasted about being exceptional in all aspects of her work when she asked for a refill.

"There's only like one whole family better than me!" she said, her drink spilled over her lap as she brought the glass to her lips. She cursed and wiped at the stain on her dress with a cocktail napkin. "Sure, I haven't been working for months, but I take jobs when I get really desperate. They may not be the toughest jobs—an old man here an old lady there, someone easy to get off—"

Off? The bartender regarded the customer sitting with a stool between himself and Pandora. Hisoka appreciated Pandora's vagueness on the subject. Everyone within earshot of her embarrassing confession waited with bated breath. A table of men around Hisoka a made bet gauging her price and joked on whether she'd participate in group sex at a discounted price or turn them away. She looks like an uppity bitch, one decided. And why should we spend any money on that geriatric fucker?

Pandora gave up on her dress as the bartender moved to the opposite end of the counter to serve a new customer.

"I've been fighting all of my life," she continued, ranting to the man next to her. "You know, I have enemies still hunting me down."

"So, what happens when they find you?" the man asked.

"I'm not stupid. I hide."

"Then how're you dealing with them?"

Pandora slammed the man's face into the counter and he rebounded back, falling from his chair. The entire bar stilled and the bartender demanded that Pandora close her tab and leave. She threw her money on the counter, flipped the bartender off, and kicked the man she hurt across the head on her way out. The customers collectively gasped.

Hisoka snorted. The fools in the table next to his looked like they were about to be sick. He waited for Pandora to distance herself from the establishment to follow her. He called in to a restaurant to make a last-minute dinner reservation for them.

Pandora climbed to the rooftop of the highest building in the city and began releasing waves of her aura like the slowly spreading ripples of water. It was the same beacon that she used in the bar where they had met for the second time and he hadn't gauged its purpose. He had a guess. Her tiny sister wasn't skulking around her, else she wouldn't have let her inside that bar knowing he was present, so it might be her way of communicating her location.

Hisoka messaged her an invitation to dinner once he was in a position where his view of her was clear. This was how others monopolized her attention and he planned to bait her in the same manner.

Pandora's face contorted into one of confusion upon reading the message on her screen. She tucked her device away. Even if she wanted to refuse, she wouldn't give up a free meal.

* * *

Hisoka smirked into his wineglass when Pandora sank into the cushioned seat across him. Her eyes were puffy, her cheeks flared red, and her body quivered in the air-conditioned restaurant. She grimaced at the basket of fake flowers surrounding a burning candle encased in a glass bulb and sniffed. She was a magnet for people's attention, they were allured by her presence and captivated by her appearance. Not one person in the room could deny they looked in her direction, and if they hadn't, they would before they left the restaurant. It had nothing to do with her gaudy dress or its tight fit on her body and her looks weren't universally attractive. Not as appetizing as her potential.

Her ability sealed nen away. She was a specialist. He trusted his initial guesses as they were rarely wrong. Had she done it on purpose? A ward against potential enemies? The more questions that surfaced in his mind, the stronger his interest became.

Hisoka handed her a menu. "You look great."

She snatched it from his hands. "How hasn't anyone killed you yet?"

"Would you like to try?"

Pandora poured herself a glass of wine and criticized the taste. She signaled a server to their table and ordered the restaurant's specialty basil pasta, the lobster, a whole roasted chicken dipped in secret sauce, and ten other of the restaurants most expensive platters. She ate in silence and with a glare, refusing to engage in small talk.

Hisoka drained his glass and refilled, never taking his eyes off her. She snuck glances at him when she didn't think he was looking and tried to pass it off as a natural response. Her stuffed-up red nose repulsed every man her elegant profile attracted. He engraved the angles of her face in his mind, the shape of her plump lips and the strength in her jaw, the deep cocoa of her swept-up hair, and the violent aura hugging her body snug.

He'd arrange a rematch. Get the fight she promised him—nothing would delight him more than to best her nen—and move on, but he enjoyed her sullen company. She didn't like fighting, but she had experience in combat to thank for her physical abilities meaning that she hadn't lied when she said she'd been fighting all of her life. That was obvious.

Hisoka paid the bill with her lost wad of jenny and guided her outside where Pandora tried to steal a man's wallet on their way through the lobby.

"The hell are you doing, bitch?" he snapped.

Pandora hurled his wallet at his face. "You dropped this, jackass!"

The man balled his hand into a fist and Hisoka stepped forward, his aura rippled between them. Pandora put her hands on his chest and repelled him with her own aura, stabbing into his gut.

"We're leaving."

The belligerent man huffed. "That's right, walk away."

Pandora snatched a pen from the reception and hurled it at the man. It pierced clean through his skull. He tried taking a few steps forward before he collapsed on the floor.

Hisoka pushed her up against the alley wall and kissed her until she pounded at his chest for air. She sucked in a breath. I'm still sore, you creep! She yielded her pliant lips to his, parted them and pressed his tongue over hers to taste the dry wine. She groaned her rejection into his mouth and he swallowed the tremors in her voice.

She shook her head. It hurts. But as he hiked her short dress to her waist, she fumbled with his trousers. Between their bated breath and their sloppy kisses, conversations from the main road tumbled into the alley with them and mingled with the chittering of mice slinking across heaps of trash.

Pandora bit down on her lip as he pressed the head of his cock into her swollen entrance and clung to him, her hands fisted into his clothes. She tightened around his shaft and begged him to wait. She needed to adjust, but he buried himself inside her to the base. She shuddered. Her insides enveloped him in their warmth.

"See? It wasn't too bad." Hisoka pushed the hair off her sweaty face and licked her tightly-sealed lips.

"Just shut up and fuck me."

Hisoka enjoyed her pressed against the alley. He exhausted her and carried her to his hotel room to resume. He tugged the sequin dress off over her head and sank down to his knees in front of her, determined to challenge her for the rest of the night.

He woke up as the sun rose and its clarity filtered in through the drapes. Pandora slept with her cheek pressed to his chest and half her body molded to his. She burned with fever overnight and crept to him, seeking the cool temperature of his skin.

This was spiraling far out of his control.

Hisoka slid out from under her body and left her money on the nightstand. He expected it to annoy her. He hoped it reminded her of his taunts. Every time she spent the money, his voice would ring in her mind telling her that she was rusty. Not worth fighting, only bedding.

She'd cave. Another push or three would do the trick.


	4. Transaction

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **04**.

 _Transaction_

* * *

Hisoka became aware of Pandora's mood through her absence. She was pissed. He preferred it that way and hoped she used her time underground to fix her shortcomings in preparation of a battle with him. He determined he made a stupid judgment after he caught Pandora's scent at a darkly lit bar with low temple music sung in a deep baritone oozed from the speakers.

The establishment's dark interior had several private booths aligning the wall with a red light casting an eerie glow into the cushioned seats and heavy drapes that offered patrons their privacy.

Pandora sat at the bar in front of a mosaic of bottles. Her glass half-empty and her cheeks dusted with a flush.

He took the seat beside her and watched her charming smile melt away at the sight of him. He leaned into his upturned arm, placing his chin in his hand and grinned.

"I thought I blocked you," she grumbled into her glass.

"You should try harder," he said, teasing. "You're beginning to lose your appeal."

Pandora closed her tab.

They were halfway across a street when she whirled around. "You're starting to piss me off and I know this is exactly what you want, but I'm not like you. I won't lose control so easily."

"That man at the last bar with the fractured jaw would beg to differ." Another few pushes and she was his. He could barely contain himself. His deep hunger for her, to face her, and crush her was on the verge of exploding. And he could fuck her to quell it all he wanted but he demanded a fight.

The streetlamps flooded the wide streets setting them alight. "What do you want? You had your fight and I'm not worth it—move on to someone that'll give you a proper challenge. I just want to make money and having people see you hanging around me is bad for business."

He toyed with the suggestion when he gave it to himself in meditation, but he circled back to Saar Ozwell, to his first encounter with the assassin as Peter, and the power cloaked around hers wound tight like a second skin bleeding into her an aura that tasted distinct from her own. He was missing a whole chunk of knowledge that was starting to bother him. But he figured her out more each time he found her and that was fun, like a bad habit that he revisited out of boredom because while it was terrible for his health—mental or physical—he enjoyed every bit of it. It was likely that she returned to the same locations because someone was giving her money to spend, else she would've moved on with all the big fish she boasts about.

"How much are you making?" Hisoka asked.

Pandora hid her fury, but her aura was honest when it spiked. She cursed him.

"I'm not interested in buying sex."

"So, you want to kill me?"

"Bingo," he said cheerily.

"That's not gonna work for me and you know it."

He inched forward and she arched her back until he hovered above her, his mouth inches apart. "I want to break you."

Once he shattered her, he planned to mold her into the ideal opponent.

"Fascinating," she deadpanned. "Are we done now?"

"How much are you making off the perverts?"d

Pandora pushed against his chest. "If this is part of your elaborate plan to swindle me into a deathmatch, it's not gonna work, but know that if you try to kill me, you won't live to pick another fight."

"And there would be nothing more pleasant than killing you, but you squandered your potential," Hisoka said. "Your only redeeming quality is your nen, but even that is wasted on you."

Pandora laughed. "I'll enjoy scraping you off the bottom of my shoe one day."

"Answer the question."

"A hundred," she said through gritted teeth.

"So little?"

"Thousand, a month."

He raised two fingers. "I'll give you two million now."

Pandora folded her arms over her chest and took a step back. "For?"

"To kill your lover," he said, grabbing her by the chin to raise her face to his, "and letting me fuck you again."

"A hundred million for the kill," she said.

"You're overcharging me."

"Well, I don't really like you."

"You had me fooled last I had you."

"And I want a million in restitution."

This one would bleed him dry if he let her, but he had the money to spare. "Done."

"Payment is upfront."

Pandora crowded Hisoka while he wired the money into her account and refused to let him leave until she double-checked that the sum had been added.

"I'm preparing dinner for him at eight," she said, handing him her address on a slip of paper. "He'll be dead before then."

He brought the paper to his mouth, grinning against it. "I look forward to it."

* * *

Hisoka harbored doubts. Pandora wasn't trustworthy and he'd be lying if he said that wasn't a part of her charm. Pandora had been acquainted with her lover for the last several weeks, making it probable that she had already been seeing him before they met. Her lover gave her an apartment, all expenses paid, and visited her infrequently, rotating between mistresses. He was ordinary, not like any of her long string of deviant patrons. He presumed Pandora preferred them over others as satisfying peculiar desires made more money and she wanted her luxurious lifestyle badly enough. Assassination was a lucrative job from what he gathered in his acquaintance with Illumi. There were big jobs all over the world—perhaps, Pandora was too much of a run of the mill assassin, like hundreds of others—that hired big players like the Zoldycks or the Meljanacs.

This called for a professional.

Illumi raised a hand up when he spotted Hisoka in the vicinity.

"How odd, I thought you were chasing around the Phantom Troupe leader," said Illumi.

"I took a detour." Hisoka handed him a picture of Pandora. "Ever seen this one. Seems she's in your trade."

Illumi stared at the image. "Is this the favor?"

"I want information."

"Selene Meljanac," Illumi said after a pause. "I haven't seen her around since Medora turned against the Meljanacs. The entire family absconded, but they should be roaming the continent since it's around Festival time."

Hisoka imagined Pandora's scars came out of the betrayal.

"Selene isn't anything like your usual targets."

"She has potential."

"There are stronger fighters in the Meljanac family."

"Like Medora?"

"Yes."

"Where can I find her?"

"You don't. She finds you."

Hisoka took Pandora's photo from Illumi. "How does she measure against you?"

"That's hard to say, I never had to fight her."

* * *

Hisoka arrived at Pandora's apartment ten minutes to the appointed time. She threw the door open and it slammed into the blue wallpapered walls. Her lover sat at the dinner table, steam rose from the pot roast in the center and the wine bottle's surface was dotted in sweat. The living room windows were wide open, the calm breeze spread the scent of spices lingering in the air, and displayed the buildings crowding the brownstone apartment where Pandora resided in a violet backdrop of faded stars against bright city lights.

He thrust a pink bottle of strawberry-flavored lube, whispering, "For your ass," on his way inside. He heard the door slide shut and the click of the lock. He grinned at her stunned lover, greeting him as if his visit were a part of the older man's plan for the evening.

"Penny, who is this?" her lover asked.

"Hisoka," she said, setting the lube on the table. Her lover stared at the bottle and back to her as she took his face in her hands. "Look at me."

"I expected to find you cleaning," said Hisoka, playful.

Worry flickered across her lover's eyes. He had good instinct. He sensed the wickedness shuddering from Hisoka in waves, radiating from him with every calm breath contracting his lungs.

Pandora caressed his face. "Some people like proof." She spoke to her lover, only him, and in the most intimate voice, the same one she used to beg for more, and repeated. "Look at me."

She snapped his neck and moved aside for his body to crumble to the floor.

Hisoka pushed her onto the table and hiked up her skirt, baring her sensitive skin to the cool evening. The plates and silverware clanged to match the rush of their actions.

He spread her open with his fingers and pressed his lips to her ear as she shifted, moaning with each thrust. "Did it turn you on?"

Pandora flinched. She would never admit it, but he felt her desire, sticky between his fingers, and in the roll of her hips that matched the rhythm of his thrusts.

He slid between her legs and she reclined, platters of untouched food smashed into the ground. He brought her to orgasm, her insides squeezed around his fingers, and her breaths became a thin string of pleasured sounds. She grabbed the ends of his hair at the base of his neck and held his gaze. He could hardly control the urge to kill her and his bloodlust pierced her, invaded her unguarded self. Fright flashed in her eyes but faded into a trance of thrill and lust.

Pandora brought him down to kiss him, her lips moved over his in equal fervor. Their teeth knocked into each other, pressing hard and deep until he felt a dull ache in his mouth. He ran his tongue across her violet lips, slipping it inside her yielding mouth. She grazed him with her canine, drawing a low groan from him, and in the flurry of movements as they sloppily tried to right their messy exchange, he left the corner of her lips bright with blood and light bruising. The deep plum of her lipstick smeared between them.

Hisoka ripped the clothes from her body after they made it to the bedroom. He flattened her back against his chest and held her, hand feeling her sternum. She rubbed her ass on his erection, writing in his arms, and he kissed the curve of her neck, tasting her sweat. He marked her skin, pushing his fingers too hard into her flesh and left impressions of his teeth around her shoulders, his erection pulsing with every wince and groan her drew out of her.

He folded her body over the edge of the bed and thrust into her. She gasped as he twisted her hair around his hand and forced her head back. He wanted to hear her. The way her voice bounced off the walls made his cock throb.

He fucked her savagely, sweat beading on his skin, fixated on the rhythms of their bodies, the slapping of their skin, the reddening of her ass with every thrust, the warm tightness of her insides gripping his dick. He traced her spine as she arched.

Her first orgasm weakened her knees, her insides spasmed, and her voice tumbled low from her lips. He released her hair and took her by the hips, riding out her orgasm while she stayed unresponsive until he felt his own climax tightening in his balls. He slowed, her insides created the perfect amount of friction to elongate his pleasure, and watched, his breaths heavy, as his cock burrowed in her until he sank as deep as he could go. She moaned in pain, her skin searing hot.

Hisoka pulled out of her slow and turned her on her back. He unconsciously licked his lips. He wanted to devour her, but not like this. Not now. She wasn't ready yet.

Moonlight spilled across her abdomen.

"I want to do it again."

Hisoka settled into a seat beside her. "Is that so?"

"I want to do it whenever I want with you."

Insatiable and fascinating as she was, this proposal didn't interest him. He frowned.

"Don't worry, your dick will lose its appeal soon enough, so this won't be a permanent arrangement."

Pandora walked to her closet to pull on a silk robe.

"Why not sweeten the deal and tell me more about yourself, Selene Meljanac?"

She turned away from the mirror. "How do you know that name?"

Hisoka shrugged.

"It's the middle of Festival. Don't say that name again. I'm just Pandora."

"Why don't you tell me about Medora?"

Pandora smirked. "You have interesting friends if you know that name."

"Is she the one that gave you those scars?"

She nodded.

"Tell me about it and I'll consider your little arrangement."

"You're a good liar, but there hasn't been a man I've fucked that hasn't wanted to be mine and you won't be the first."


	5. The Answer

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **05**.

 _The Answer_

* * *

Pandora's life was like an ill-fitted shoe. One rarely came across talent like hers that tended—more often—to spiral down the drain than find solid footing. Hisoka found himself both pensive of and attracted to her wasteful nature. It was not a glaring problem and it suited her better than her façade.

It failed to faze him when Pandora upgraded to a richer lover that offered her a generous stipend and a luxurious penthouse. Had she been sulking because he was the first man to turn her down? But had he truly? He wouldn't say her offer wasn't tempting, but why make it official when it worked without any attachments?

Hisoka crashed a private romantic dinner with her new owner. She shoved him into a narrow storage room before the other man noticed him.

"Stop stalking me, you creep," she hissed. Her brown hair fell past her shoulders in loose curls and he imagined ways of ruining her perfection.

He grinned, enjoying the sight of her squirming, shameless like an insect dragging itself out of danger. He pressed a finger to his lips. "Secret."

"Quit the cute act, I was serious when I told you to scram. Get out before I throw you out."

The threat of violence shuddered through him. He slammed the door shut when she attempted to leave. She whipped around, her eyebrows drawn into a wrinkle, but she released her tension with her exhale. Trapped with him in the closet, she gave in to his carnal desires because she wouldn't kill her current patron.

Pandora sank down to her knees and took him into her mouth. He relaxed, placing a hand on her head, his fingers moved across her scalp until he gripped her solidly. She kissed the bead of pre-cum from the tip and sucked him in. She knew what she was doing. Teasing him. She maintained one hand wrapped around the base, jerking him off as her warm tongue moved sloppily over his length. Her head bobbed with rhythmic dedication, her nails raking across the taut skin of his outer thigh before they sank in. He moaned.

She daringly devoured him to the base. The tightness of her throat forced him closer to orgasm. Her narrowed blue gaze held his. Sweat beaded on her temples and her nipples strained against the silk fabric of her dress. She made soft appreciative sounds that stirred him and mingled with the obscene sucking noises and his own pleasured intonations.

Pandora reaffirmed his grip to the back of her head and closed her eyes, ready for him. Just a soft warm mouth for him to enjoy.

Hisoka steadied her head with both hands and moved his hips, his hard cock a wonder plunging past her lips. The tiny picks of pain on his thigh from the puncture of her nails urged him and he quickened, fucking her mouth. He maintained a certain tempo, losing himself in the surge of pleasure that wound through him until he was ready to burst. She retook control, focusing on the crown, stimulating him with her tongue, setting his nerve endings alight, and when he came, she swallowed his pleasure. She held on and lapped up the juices she missed, savoring the cum on her tongue.

Pandora rose unsteadily on her feet as he returned his spent dick to his trousers. She wiped her wet lips with a crumpled hand towel she found on the shelf by the door and fixed her dress.

Outside, her patron called out for her. Piper.

"Leave," she said.

Hisoka touched her lips. "You sure you want to stay like this?"

His insides squirmed. He could taste her arousal emanating from her like the sweat peeking through her skin. Her aura was like a dark cloud of desire, the rain waiting for the right conditions to spill.

He dipped his index finger into her mouth, his dick aching as her tongue traced the length of it from the base to the tip of his fingernail. He slipped his hand up her inner thigh to her soaked underwear, rubbing her clit through the fabric. She groaned, steadying herself against his body, and she was willing.

He moved to remove her underwear and she held his hands in place. She pressed her lips to his, a chaste kiss, and drew back, her hand on the handle of the door. "Thanks for getting me going."

She slipped out of his grasp and returned to her romantic dinner.

Pandora beckoned her patron's attention, leaning against the table with her legs crossed at the ankles. The man admired her, hesitated to touch her, but she pressed his palm firmly against her breast. She guided it past her abdomen to her thigh where she released him. She opened her legs for him, the act alone fascinated Hisoka.

Hisoka watched the old man slide his hand inside her underwear. She spread her legs wider, allowing him better access, and Hisoka felt his fingers twitch, the silken folds wet with desire he drew from her. With a pathetic groan, the balding man went to his knees before Pandora and drank from her like a zealous worshipper. She undulated her hips for comfort on the edge of the table and held the man's head, her eyes penetrating Hisoka. She dared him to look away, but he stood there, captivated by her.

He understood what appealed to her about this lifestyle. The men revered her. And with her head thrown back, her curled hair cascading down her back in the dim lighting, the thin strap of her dress spilling from her shoulder, he saw that she could entice him to do the same.

This woman was dangerous, more so than he presumed.

Pandora licked her lips and her voice broke, dissolving into heated pants. Her breathing quickened.

Hisoka's jaw tightened and his hands fisted, his nails digging into his palm. She came with her eyes on his. Her fiery gaze engraved in him.


	6. Festival Time

**WARNING** ( **S** ): Blood play and erotic asphyxiation. The usual.

* * *

 **Horticulture**

* * *

 **06**.

 _Festival Time_

* * *

Hisoka stared at the photograph Illumi presented him. A woman stuck out in a crowd of blurred strangers. She hid her gaze under a black baseball cap, but the camera angle offered an unobstructed view of her face—a square-shaped jaw with strong cheekbones and eyes that were a lime green shade. She was in the middle of hiking the collar of her jacket up over her lower face when the image was snapped.

"And this is?" asked Hisoka, holding the picture between two fingers.

"Have you seen her around Selene?" asked Illumi.

"New job?"

Illumi nodded. "Medora killed another Meljanac this week."

Hisoka delighted in the idea of tagging along with Illumi if it meant encountering a strong fighter.

Illumi fixed his gaze on Hisoka and deadpanned, "She costs more alive."

Hisoka shrugged. "Well, I haven't seen anyone hanging around Selene. Ah, no, I'm wrong, there is one girl. Athena, I believe her name was."

"No third person?"

"No."

"Medora travels with two others. To challenge her, you have to kill them first. It won't be easy."

Hisoka smirked. "I'm honored, you sound worried."

"Medora and her brothers are the strongest assassins in the Meljanac family."

"How exciting."

"If you want to kill her, you can," said Illumi, pausing, "after I've turned her over to her family."

* * *

Hisoka kept his eyes peeled for Medora but returned to Deene City for Pandora. Illumi had informed him that Medora took advantage of Festival—an archaic practice of the Meljanacs to weed out their weakest links—to pick off the rest of her enemies. Their unnecessary drama was a result of Medora's love of attention. The fact that the head of the Meljanac family put a hit out on Medora meant that she succeeded in stirring chaos. Pandora was among the names in Medora's hitlist and Hisoka didn't plan to miss out on the opportunity of adding more prey to his collection.

Pandora mingled with a crowd of elites, remaining in Hisoka's line of sight. He didn't blend well with the others, but nobody approached him. He leaned casually in deep concentration, following her every move, observing her every gesture, breathing every breath she took, and feeling the distorted prickle of her nen shuddering out of her body—a beacon in a scattering blackness. This was the easiest way to track her. It was when she was arguably at the peak of her strength. This wasn't meant to communicate like he initially believed, it was to bait the weaklings for Festival.

Hisoka spotted Pandora's prey enter the hall from the left entrance. Pandora turned away from that direction, offering her current man the flute of champagne she held. Hisoka read the excuse on Pandora's lips before she glided towards the opposite entrance.

The bathroom. Typical.

Hisoka followed the girl skulking after Pandora across the hall and out the double doors. The empty corridor echoed with the slowing clicks of Pandora's heels. Pandora reached the end of the hallway, pausing at the entrance of the adjacent venue and Hisoka stayed by the doors to the private soiree they left. Between them, the young girl with the dagger peeking out from the loose sleeve of her dress, stood enveloped in protective aura. A neophyte. Not worth the fight.

Pandora's eyes shone bright like sun-infused gems when she registered the young assassin's identity. "Carpo! Did they finally let you leave the island unsupervised?"

Carpo tsked. "I don't need a shadow like you, let alone three."

Pandora held out her arms. "I'm surprised you've survived this long. Has Dio been protecting you?"

Carpo ground her teeth. "You think you're safe because you came out on top again? You're a target, too, and the prize is your position."

She laughed boisterously as if the girl had told the world's funniest joke, and Hisoka's lips tugged upward at the ends. She was playing with Carpo.

Infuriated, Carpo launched her dagger at Pandora's head, but it stabbed into the wall. Carpo's distraction meant to give her the upper hand, but her inexperience in battle was a glaring fault. She hadn't even learned nen properly.

"Where is our dear brother?" asked Pandora, intercepting Carpo's path and took her face.

Carpo kicked her leg up with a growl, missing Pandora. "I won't let you near Dio!"

Pandora shoved her and the inexperienced assassin lost her footing, rolling onto her back and returning to her feet swiftly. Pandora was faster.

The thrill etched on Pandora's face made his desire peak. He saw no benefit in preying on a weakling, but the savagery that shadowed her expression, the terse hallway atmosphere crowded with her bloodlust, and the fluid execution of every movement—everything a calculation in her sparkling eyes, no move wasted—made his knees weak and his cock hard for her. She never fought him with this level of precision, knowing that she could fueled his interest.

Pandora broke Carpo's legs when she caught her midair and slammed her to the ground, leaving the assassin agonizing on the floor curling into herself as she brought her hands to the protruding bone.

Pandora made eye contact with him, her gaze narrowed—dark and bloodthirsty, no amount of death would satisfy her. He swallowed thickly, his dry throat aching and his cock throbbing. A shudder went through him, numbing his quivering skin. This was what it felt like to be threatened by Pandora, to taste the force of her cold hatred. His urge to fuck and fight her to death overlapped. He battled his own instinct to attack her, anticipating that if he did, he would receive the challenge he wanted, but this wasn't even the peak of her ability. She wasn't ready for him to sink his teeth into.

This was like a drop of water in the humid summers of his childhood. His feelings had not changed from then to now. He wanted more and he didn't care how he got it. He would drink in all of her hatred like that old man knelt before her in worship if that meant ensuring that she hated only him, that she looked at him with the same eyes—the promise to obliterate him until the wind scattered his ashes.

Hisoka lodged a card so far into Carpo's head that it came out her forehead. He caught a flash of metal in his periphery and evaded the swipe of the dagger, but the kick caught him in the abdomen, hurling him through the wall. His body destroyed three bathroom stalls and his landing shattered the monochromatic tiling.

He chuckled when the weight of her body settled on his, the sharp point of Carpo's dagger pierced the skin of his neck. A pipe bent and burst above them and showed them with a spray of water as the dust settled, stones clattered into place among the wreckage.

Pandora's eyes were alive and in them, he noticed green in her irises peeking through a flood.

Hisoka ground her ass against his aching erection. She hurled her weapon away and kissed him. He tore at the flimsy fabric of her narrow dress and she ripped the shirt off him. He thrust hard into her and she cried out, her voice a beautiful echo. Her nails pinched into his shoulder as he fisted a hand in her hair. She exhaled and he felt it around his cock.

She took him in deep. He groaned, her soft sweltering heat wrapped around him tight. She covered his body with her own, pressing her lips to his ear, her shoulder flushed, and whispered, "Fuck me, tear me apart."

He buried his nails into her hips. He wanted nothing more than to oblige her, but as she started to shake her wanton hips, a shrill scream disrupted them. The witness sprang away crying murder.

Pandora removed him from inside her, flinching. She tied the loose pieces of her skirt together to keep the bottom half of her dress closed. She licked her bruised lips and headed out the hole in the wall. She left him lying on the broken tiles of the bathroom, soaked to the marrow, with a raging boner. He pushed his painful erection back inside his pants and exited.

This was all the confirmation that he needed to determine she warred against her true nature. Killing to Pandora was an art form. Whether the reason was a natural affinity for it or years of devoted practice was the furthest thing from Hisoka's mind. Trivial information. He wasn't interested in her life story. He wanted her present, but he desired her whole, not the withering remnant she presented herself as. That Pandora was boring. He disliked her, but he liked the feral version of her that killed calculatedly.

Hisoka forced his way into Pandora's penthouse. She had simmered down since their encounter three hours ago and stood in a bathrobe with the tips of her damp hair shuddering droplets of water. The towel she held to dry her hair slapped onto the floor. No words passed between them. He advanced and she backed away until he pinned her body against the wall. He slid his right hand under her robe and his left pawed at her breasts—pinching and tugging at her nipples. He opened his mouth against hers and swallowed her pleasure, the vibrations of her moans inside him tingled.

Between kisses they shed clothing, leaving a trail of crumpled fabric on their way to her bed.

Hisoka pushed her down and straddled her legs, electrified by restraining her hands to the side of her head.

Again, they were at one another, sex another battle waged between them. The harder one fought against the other, the rougher the response. Wordless discussion on what was enjoyed and what was barred from presentation happened through trial and error, resulting in the realization that submission wasn't impossible for either of them. If she bested him, she took the lead and he relished in the sight of her body bouncing on his cock and the ache of his bruises. If he won a bout, he drilled into her until she squirmed and he, blinded by desire, enclosed his hand over her neck at her urging, testing the amount of pressure he needed to have her clamp around him. He discovered it and held on. Gasping for air, Pandora shuddered through the last wave of the orgasm.

She punched him when clarity seeped into her and he retaliated the same, eliciting a laugh out of her and he savored her delight. She brought him down into a bloody kiss, the sour metallic taste thick in their twining tongues. He raised her leg up over his shoulder and reentered her.

She flinched, breaking apart from him, her sweaty forehead pressed against his, eyes up, meeting his, the center of them greener than the last recalled and shining.

"Slow," she told him, her voice a flutter against his lips.

He thrust hard and she cried out, her fisted hand pounding on his shoulder.

"Okay, I'll be nice."

He licked his fingers and she sighed as he removed them from his mouth to run them down her collarbone to one of her breasts, tracing a pointed nail around her erect nipple.

"Prove it," she said, grabbing his ass to guide him inside her slowly and made him groan. She licked his lips.

He deepened their kiss.

The ding of the elevator reached him, but Pandora didn't throw him off. She wrapped around him, her nails biting into his back.

"Are you here, Piper?"

The older man's voice carried over to them through the airy hallways and the opened door.

Pandora begged for more. Her body weak to his measured thrusts, her hips moving to meet his, and her kisses sloppy.

She cried out as he filled her, her voice bounced off the walls. The approaching footsteps halted.

Hisoka looked to the entrance of the door, the old man stood with his eyes wide and his jaw slack. Hisoka smiled at the stranger as he continued to pleasure his woman, stirring her up. He wanted to watch him agonize in place and began to exude bloodlust, paralyzing the man mid-word. The panic in the old man doubled when he couldn't move, could scarcely breathe.

Pandora arched and Hisoka stopped mid-thrust, palm pushed against her quivering body. "Kill him."

She shook her head. She was close.

He pulled out, sitting back, painfully erect, but eager to watch her do it. Would she accept? He caught her foot when she tried to kick him for ignoring her.

"Well?"

Pandora rolled out of bed. She would never admit it. She was too pigheaded to admit she was chasing a useless dream.

"Any requests?"

"Surprise me."

She grinned. She flicked her hair off her shoulder and approached the man. She called to him as one would a child, cooing while her hand met his cheek to caress him as a lover might. It was so loving, it was nauseating.

Hisoka was unable to contain himself.

Pandora's ren chilled the room and stilled Hisoka's movements as she stalked over from the dresser to produce a dagger. She brought it up to eye level, the blade reflecting the green seeping through the blue of her eyes. She returned to the man, promised him that it wouldn't hurt. Not much, she said with a teasing smile.

She undressed him, slow in removing every button from a slit and tugging at his tie until she transferred it to her neck. She uncovered the tremulous swell of his belly before unbuckling the belt to unbutton his pants. She ran the knife over the surface of his skin as he squealed, mouth flapping without a sound.

Nothing stood between him and death.

Pandora tore into him with a surgeon's precision and yanked hard on the bloody intestine that spilled first as the agonizing man re-experienced the tragedy of his life. She wrapped the organ snug around his neck, pulling until she dropped him to the ground. She steadied his squirming body with a foot and tugged until his breathing turned into a disturbing gurgle. His face went from white to purple. Blood pooled at Pandora's feet, an offering.

Pandora wiped her chin with the back of her hand, but her face had been splashed, like a canvas dripping red paint.

Hisoka stepped up behind her, one hand wrapped around the hand that held the dagger and the left smeared the red across her stomach.

The assassin in her was the one he wanted to obliterate. His hand wrapped around her slender neck, his mouth pressed against her ear. The room stank of blood, guts, and the fading strawberry wash on her skin. His grip tightened and she remained still, trusting but all wrapped up in him, her breathing transitioning to panting, her desire alight again that she was wet, a drop rolling down her thigh mixing with blood and sweat. He didn't recognize her.

He wanted to kill her as he fucked her, ripping her apart—feel her blood thick in his hands and the film of her skin sliding underneath his fingertips. He killed worthy opponents for the morbid look in their eyes when they faced a humiliating death. He thrived on that fleeting moment, relished it, existed for it almost exclusively.

It was almost the same as watching Pandora kill her prey—stalk and toy with them, confident because she was powerful. This is wonderful.

Hisoka guided the knife to her navel and pierced her skin, a bead of blood emerged from the small incision.

One of her hands threaded through his hair and she turned her head, taking his mouth. He dropped the dagger to hoist her up into his arms. He slammed her back into the nearest wall and opened her, pushing into her. The sound of her breath hitched. They were frozen, staring into one another's eyes, their chests rising and falling simultaneously before their lips met.

"I told you," she whispered against his bloody lips, a smile curved hers into a smirk, "there wasn't a man I fucked that didn't want to be mine."


	7. A Bite into Flesh and Bone

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **07**.

 _A Bite into Flesh and Bone_

* * *

The blood on their skin dried and flaked, falling away from their flesh like ashes on the stained sheets. Hisoka admired the bruising that ringed Pandora's neck as she rested with her head on his thigh, her naked body nestled comfortably between his legs. The brightness of her phone screen reflected in her blue eyes. She worked to sink her fangs into her next victim, but after tracing the green contusions on the surface of her skin, he hurled the phone across the room where it smashed into the wall.

Pandora slapped his arm down as he chuckled and pushed her onto the bed, straddling her. He kissed her neck; one hand cupped her breast while the other pushed her leg up over his shoulder. He thrust into her.

She pressed her palms, fingers curled inside her hand, starting to push against him. "That hurts," she said, attempting to wiggle out from under him. She lowered her hands to his abdomen. "I'm still sore."

He withdrew nearly the entire length of his throbbing cock and shoved it in. She shut her eyes and hissed. She pounded her fist against his chest and turned her face away. He kissed the tears forming in her eyes, the saltiness stinging against his tongue.

Hisoka repeated the motion, harder, and watched her eyes redden as she bore it in silence, her moans an even mixture of pain and pleasure. Her entrance bright red and twitching. The tears rolled down her face by the third violent thrust. He wanted to see her dissolve beneath him.

She flinched each time he forced his way into her trembling core, listening to the broken syllables falling from her lips, and he orgasmed fast with her tight around him. He crushed her under his weight and she shuddered, gripping his hair when he brought her to climax, the arm she wrapped around his shoulders tightened.

She evaded a kiss and whispered against his smirking lips, "Keep going…until you're hard again."

"Didn't you want me to stop?" he asked.

"I'm all warmed up now."

She ground against him. The smell of blood that radiated from her skin excited him. He moved slowly, blood rushing to his cock once more, distending inside of her as the muscles in her wrapped around him snug. He stared into her eyes, her irises bright.

He ran a finger underneath one of her eyes. "They're blue again."

"Were they a different color before?"

"Green."

"You're starting to wear me out."

Hisoka slid in slow, his gaze trained on his cock disappearing inside of her. She breathlessly called his name, her voice lingered in the heat between them.

"Do you ask your old men to fuck you like this?" he asked, fascinated by her bruises on her neck.

She grinned. "They pay, so they get to fuck me how they want."

"So, if I pay, I get to do whatever I want?"

"I thought you weren't interested in buying sex."

He adjusted the grip of his hand on her neck, running his thumb from her throat to under her chin. He drew her lips to his, quick to run his tongue along the seam of her mouth, pressing in to taste the alcohol fading against the metallic tang of blood.

He felt the tickle of her fingernails trailing slow up his arms to rest on his shoulder. The bed creaked as she adjusted beneath him, moaning into his moving lips, her hands settling behind his neck, her fingers twining at his nape.

"Do you want me to fuck you like a lover?" he asked, her warm breath heated his wet lips.

"You're not my lover."

"What?" He exaggerated his affront with a mischievous tone. "I thought you wanted me."

She chuckled.

"It was the first time anyone has ever gone straight for my groin," said Hisoka.

"I've never had a man threaten to kill me while they had an erection, I panicked." She adjusted to his slow tempo, relishing the roll of his hips between words. "It's dangerous being a girl around these places."

"You unblocked my number."

"You're good in bed, but I never said I wanted a boyfriend."

He brushed his fingers across her cheek. "You're killing the mood."

Pandora stopped him and slid to the edge of the bed. He grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the mattress, the springs groaned beneath the shifting weight of their bodies.

"How long are you going to play this game?" he asked.

"This game is my life."

There was something feral in her gaze that made his insides tremble. If he dug deep enough, he could hit a nerve and she'd show a different side of her, one worth paying special interest to, because while Pandora was a fun lay, he wanted to push her back on the right track. He intended to break her, but he couldn't do it if she wasn't as interested in the fight.

"You're a killer," he said. "You can sleep with half the world, but you won't feel the same satisfaction that you do when you kill." He grinned as he watched the words sink into the sea of her body like boulders. The discomfort radiating from her was as palpable as the tension building up an electric wall between them. "Want to deny it? Your proof is lying in pieces by the door."

She shoved him off, knocking him to his side, and sprung out of bed. She pulled on the first article of clothing she found, but stopped halfway to the door, looking down at the disemboweled corpse. She retraced her steps to Hisoka, a curt sigh escaped her, when shattering glass redirected their attention.

Pandora cursed and exited the room.

Hisoka followed her to the source of the noise. Pandora lifted Athena from the broken shards.

"You're disobeying my orders," Pandora said, her arms folded over her chest.

Athena gasped at the sight of Hisoka. "You said you were finished with him!"

"Wanna join?" asked Hisoka, leaning into the frame of the door, naked and erect.

Athena blanched and turned away. She growled. "That's not the point, you killed Helios and Carpo! Dio threw a fit and Mother is furious!"

Pandora clapped her hands, excited. "Is Dio near? I do believe I owe him a—"

"Mother changed Illumi's order."

Hisoka blinked. "Oh?"

Illumi showed him a picture of Medora Meljanac because he had orders to capture her.

"Has he got a trail?" asked Pandora.

Oh, it made such perfect sense. Hisoka laughed. "He will soon."

Pandora whipped around with a glare.

"Medora Meljanac, I presume?" asked Hisoka.

Faster than his reflexes, Athena snatched Pandora's wrist and pulled her out the broken window. He stuck his head out and watched them freefall from the eighty-story building. The two landed on the roof of an adjacent building where Pandora paused, looking up to Hisoka. She ripped the skin from her face and underneath it, he saw the woman from the photograph as her disguise dissolved into an orb of silver light.

She smiled up at him.

A third person appeared on the rooftop with her and Athena before the three vanished without a trace.

 _How thrilling._


	8. Who is the Mouse?

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **08**.

 _Who is the Mouse?_

* * *

Hisoka offered Illumi his location. Pandora traveled far, but not too great a distance that she was out of Hisoka's reach.

Illumi caught up with him in a day and met him at a bar outside congested city life where Pandora mingled among the people as a vagabond.

"Medora is an outlier within the Meljanac family. She's a self-serving loner and a glutton for chaos." Illumi settled into the seat next to Hisoka. "She's a specialist with the ability to void the use of one's nen for a specified amount of time once all conditions are met, but that was the extent of her nen when I last saw her."

"It takes six hours for voided nen to return," said Hisoka. He imagined that voiding nen was its basic level of functionality and that she had molded it into a practical ability in battle, one that wouldn't exhaust her. "She requires a name."

"And a favor," said Illumi. "There are over three other requirements necessary for its activation and she can't fulfill them in battle. She can only cancel one ability at a time and she can't cancel the same one within a twenty-four-hour period. However, it is likely she will avoid battle. We have her brothers to worry about. They shadow her everywhere she goes and you won't make it anywhere near her unless you handle them."

This was shaping up to be a great week for Hisoka if he got the opportunity to gauge the power of the three assassins and kill at least one. How much would she hate him if he killed one of her shadows? He shuddered all over with only the thought of it.

"Apollo is a manipulator and he is easily drawn to battle, but you never know if you will be fighting him or one of his dolls until you shatter it. Next is Hermes. He's a nen-user, but I've never seen his ability. He works behind the scenes but will interfere if Apollo goes down. He's the weakest of the two, so he'll be easier to kill. Our best strategy would be to strike both of them simultaneously, that is if Medora cared for them."

"Oh?"

"If they're not prey, they aren't bait. Those two serve her."

"Where is her bait?"

"The Meljanac family returned to their base where have been ordered not to interfere."

"I can corner her," said Hisoka, setting his drink down. "Give me two hours and meet me in the alley behind this bar."

"I'll secure the vicinity."

Hisoka searched the city for the area with the most human activity. He spotted her in the middle of a crowded plaza disguised as Peter, the old vagrant, rattling her tin can at people.

He dropped a stream of coins into her cup, drawing her attention upward with an immediate scowl.

"This is a nice public space." He feigned appreciation of the heavily congested plaza.

Pandora struggled to her feet, pocketed her loose change, and walked away.

Hisoka chased her to the roof of a flat commercial building and drew her flush against him, a firm grip on her saggy ass. The entrance to the staircase sat behind her.

She opened her mouth but Hisoka silenced her with his free hand. She stank of expensive bourbon and piss.

"You're getting harder to find," he said, aware of his surroundings.

Her shadows were zetsu masters so he had no way of telling whether they were around or not. Illumi mention two brothers and Hisoka saw one join her on the rooftop after her last escape, but the other had been Athena, a girl as youthful as he remembered her during his first Hunter Exam. It had to be one of her brothers in costume.

He bore down on Pandora. This was a disguise. Athena could be one, too. Near perfect work. He touched the soft, wrinkled skin of her face, admiring the craft.

Pandora slapped his hand away, her bushy old man eyebrows drawing into a deeper wrinkle. It stuck to her like a second skin and it was anatomically correct because he felt a shriveled dick smushed against his thigh. What a wonderful transformation.

"Not hard enough," she spat, not bothering to keep up airs.

"Would've been harder without the help."

"How cute, you have friends."

Hisoka laughed. "Illumi Zoldyck." He relished the devastation that sagged in her face. "He mentioned you're a slippery one and that you only show up when you want something, so why come to me?"

Pandora shoved him so hard into the wall at her back that his body left an outline and the green of her eyes shone through the blue. "You think you're doing yourself a favor helping Illumi Zoldyck kill me, but none of it will lure me into the deathmatch you want. You see, no matter what you both cooked up, I'm about ten steps ahead, and if you haven't noticed, I'm very good at escaping whether I'm a disaster or not. I balance out."

Hisoka laughed. "But are you angry enough to want me dead?"

"You'd want that, wouldn't you?"

"I want to feel your bloodlust stab into me when you see me, I want to feel the tension of having my guard up never knowing when you'd strike, I want to be hunted by you like you went after Carpo. I want to kill you at your best. You've been holding back."

She cursed him.

"Consider this an opportunity for you to mend some fences with your family," he said, his dick twitched from the stimulating prick of cold nen washing over him. "Or you can try option two and try to kill me."

"This banter is getting old," she said, unimpressed and kept him pinned in place with her arm over his throat.

"Then, we should bury it."

He broke free of her grasp and elbowed her in the face while her guard was dropped. She skidded backward and clumsily rolled onto her feet, but he pinned her to the ground with several shu-strengthened cards that pierced her ragged clothes.

He dove towards her, but she slipped free of her overcoat and lunged at him. He caught her fist and jerked her forward. This wasn't even her full power. She fought to find an escape route.

He crushed her against his chest and ground his hips against hers. A yelp escaped her.

"I see, you want to be caught," said Hisoka. "Let's see if Illumi finds us and while we wait, we should have some fun."

He reached for the rope holding her pants together and tugged it off. She held on. "No!"

"Are you feeling shy?" asked Hisoka. "Why? I've seen all of you, what is another disguise?"

"I don't—"

She moaned when he grabbed a handful of her ass. He cupped her crotch and chuckled. "Well, aren't we excited?"

"Don't touch it!"

Her knobby knees weakened and she sagged in his arms. The aura wrapped around her wasn't her own, that's why it had been strange to him. It had a distinct quality about it, but it copied her own to blend in.

"Remove your disguise if you'd like." Hisoka pushed his fingers into the saggy skin of her disguise. "How do you remove it? Nen?"

He focused his aura on the tips of his fingers and dug in, not a drop of blood spilled only another layer of supple skin revealed. He tugged and the skin came away like stubborn adhesive, the aura that created the disguise dissolved at his fingertips and gathered together into an orb.

"How many disguises until I reach the real you?"

Pandora laughed. "I figured Selene was your favorite."

He turned her around, pulling her ass against his erection. "It will do."

She hooked her fingers in the waistband of his pants, rubbing his cock between her ass. He rammed into her and heard the breath catch in her throat. He ran a hand up her spine, steadying her. His hips slapping against her ass rhythmically, her insides sucked him, twitching around him. She cried out, the wall under her hands crumbling.

Hisoka pulled out as she neared orgasm and jerked her around by the shoulder, hoisting her up against the wall. He ripped the mask from her face and the nen collected into another colored orb. Her white hair spilled past her tanned shoulders and her body felt smaller in his arms, but her aura was stronger. This was who he wanted.

He kissed her. She moaned his name into his mouth, groaning when he bit her bottom lip and teased her tongue. He slammed into her and she folded her arms behind his neck.

"What will you do when you can no longer fuck me?" she asked, her hot breath against his mouth.

"There are women like you everywhere."

"But they're not as skilled."

"That gives you little value."

"I've already forced my way under your skin." She raised her upper body but he slammed her back into place. "Tell me that you do not fantasize about killing me while you ram into me. Admit that you haven't at least thought of it once."

He remained silent.

"What did I tell you after our deathmatch? I know how I want to die, I want to be fucked to death. I put that thought in your head, not it's all you can think about. How it'd feel to kill me and fuck me until my body went cold? How it'd feel to have me fighting against you as you watched the life leave my eyes? Such a poetic death, but so short-lived."

She played him.

He started to laugh. "Should we try it?"

He slammed into her. She lifted her ass to meet his next aggressive thrust, her insides sucking him in.

"Yeah," she said. "Prove me wrong."

Hisoka stroked his length inside her and Pandora's body quivered, her voice high in the moans that escaped her. He enjoyed her, losing track of time, but realizing that he had not wasted too much of it.

As he rode out the orgasm, Pandora grabbed his face and in a breathless whisper asked, "Have you heard of the Saturn Lily?"

Hisoka raised his eyebrows. "No."

"It's an organization fronted by a man who doesn't exist," she answered, pushing against his body, his cock slipping out of her. "It's said that he has an ability that kills instantly. I want to find him."

"I don't care what you want."

"I don't remember asking you to care," she replied. "I only asked if you knew about the Saturn Lily and the man that runs it, but you're a dry well of information. You're about as useful to me as learning this was to you."

"Distracting me won't help you escape."

"You're too stubborn." Pandora caressed his face as he pulled his pants back on. "That's fine, I enjoy breaking pigheaded men."

Hisoka snatched her hand from his face and crushed it, breaking every bone in it. If it hurt her in any way, he didn't see it.

"Can't decide whether you like or hate me?" she asked. "That would mean you don't know if you'd rather let me live or kill me. You need to step up your game. You wouldn't want me to win our cat and mouse game."

His lips curved into a smile, but the thrill in him turned to fury.

"You'll understand once you wake up."

Hisoka felt the syringe stab into his thigh and the liquid flooded his bloodstream. He punched her square in the jaw and knocked her back into the ground. She burst out laughing. His limbs felt heavy as he fell forward, crushing her underneath his weight. She elbowed him but he caught it and pushed her arm across her neck, intending to choke her before he passed out.

She struggled, her mocking laughter coming out in disjointed wheezes as he applied more pressure to her throat. The drug worked fast and his grip weakened.

Pandora shoved him off him and gasped for breath. Her nose dripping blood over his face as he waited for the numbness to pull him under. His limbs were not his own, not controlled by his brain but by another. The edges of his eyes darkened, but the next few times that he blinked, Illumi's face materialized above his own.

"No hard feelings, Hisoka, but Medora called in a favor," said Illumi.

Furious as he was, it amused him that this had all been some elaborate scheme to capture him.

Illumi pressed a handkerchief to Pandora's bloody nose. "You need a better hobby."

Their voices reached him as if through a wall of water. Distant intonations in the dark, like a devil speaking from the shadows in a nightmare.

Pandora smiled down at Hisoka. "I like what I like."

I'm going to enjoy killing you.


	9. Interlude

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **09**.

 _Interlude:_

 _A Stream of Distant Memories_

* * *

 _Pandora Meljanac slid her hand under the semi-conscious man's chin and lifted his face to the fluorescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling. His half-opened eyes rolled back and his breath left his bruised lips in haggard wisps._

 _She raked her gloved fingers through his damp hair, pushing it back with a lover's tenderness, and kissed the top of his bloody head._

 _"Not much longer now, love," she whispered, "I promise."_

 _The faucet through the room behind her dripped water into a sink overflowing with used tools and bloody gauze. The central air conditioner rattled above their heads and kept the temperature frosty._

 _Her phone screen lit up and the device's buzzing over the surface of the crowded metal table disrupted the natural rhythms of the workplace that ensured her peace. She peered over at the letter that appeared on the ID screen, "H," and sighed._

 _She bit the end of her latex glove and slid her hand free of it, spitting it into the trash bin at her feet. She put the call on speaker._

 _"I'm in the middle of a job," Pandora answered._

 _"I have locations for all members of the Phantom Troupe except the leader," said Hermes._

 _Pandora stabbed her gaze into the man in front of her and listened to the leather straps strain against his feeble squirming, biting into the purple contusions that marred his skin. "Is that all?"_

 _"I also know that the Saturn Lily transaction between them was handled personally by the leader of the Troupe."_

 _Her annoyance ebbed._ Interesting. _"Gather everyone in Flora in three days."_

 _"Apollo is on a long job."_

 _"Three days should be enough time to wrap up."_

 _Pandora reached to press the end call button, but Hermes spoke once more. "The summit meeting is soon. In Deene."_

 _"Make time."_

 _She went for the button once more, but Hermes blurted, "Callista was killed."_

 _Pandora dropped her hand to her side allowing the bound man a reprieve and pressed the phone to her ear, off_ speaker _. She noticed a tremulous quality in Hermes' voice, whether it was a result of mourning or fear of repercussions, she couldn't tell._

 _"She simply was not strong enough," said Pandora, her tone void of perceivable emotion. "I chose a bad hand."_

 _"She ranked low," continued Hermes._

 _Pandora slipped further away from her prisoner, locked herself away with the drippy faucet. She clenched the edge of the metal sink; the coppery stench of blood and rusted steel rose into her nose. "I tripled my workload for her sake. How did you not log it?"_

 _"I'm in big trouble because I did!"_

 _"Who killed her?"_

 _"Dio."_

 _The screen of her phone cracked and Hermes' voice flooded with static. She heard him call to her multiple times, but the quiet coiled in her like a foreign entity and nestled dangerously close to her chest._

 _"Flore," she said clearly. "Three days."_

 _Pandora returned to her hostage and caught him in the middle of an escape plan. He sawed through the bonds of his hands and with the jagged knife, bright red with effort, he attacked her. Stab through one of the important organs in her body. She saw the goal swimming in his mind and flashing in his black eyes, but she caught him by the face and slapped the weapon from his hands._

 _Pandora forced him back into his chair and he flailed like the bitter-eyed trout she fished out of a stream as a child to thrust into her brother's arms when he'd failed to catch his own dinner. The man started to beg as well as his tongue-less mouth permitted, offered her money. Anything that she wanted. He wanted to live._

 _She crushed his skull, the warmth of his blood oozed between her fingers, and she stared at his disfigured face. She didn't need him alive._

* * *

 _Pandora sensed everyone's malice pour into the hallway before entering the room. Everyone within the banquet hall stared at her with narrowed eyes, their bloodlust a sharpened boning knife poised to peel the muscle from her skeleton._

 _Her siblings and her father's bastards were spaced out among the rest of her relatives—cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. Enough family had survived her coup, which she'd admit was unprecedentedly messy work for her, but she could only expand the range of her ability._ Null and Void _required clearing three key conditions to activate and it limited her to eliminating one annoying nen ability at a time. She didn't make it impossible for these terms to be met in battle, but she'd preferred fighting blind sometimes instead of attempting to do it._

 _At the end of the hall, on a slightly raised platform sat four older women, each dressed in finery wrapped in an air of deadliness. The one that wore her gray-streaked black hair in a neat arrangement that brought out the sharp angles of her face exuded a triumphant air Pandora had wanted to snuff out all of her life. Gaia Meljanac, her mother and the head of the family, welcomed Pandora with a smile._

 _"You dare show your arrogant face to us?" Hera hissed, the first Meljanac mistress, her feline-like eyes narrowed._

 _"Who approved your entry?" demanded Semele, the second mistress, her hair a brown knot atop her head._

 _"Why do you stand unharmed?" Theia cried, the third mistress. She clung to Gaia imploringly. "How can you allow her to stand there after what she did to my daughter?" She jabbed an index finger in the air toward the door, a vein becoming visible along her pale neck. "You mock me wearing my Selene's face! I should tear you to pieces!"_

 _Theia moved to stand but Gaia forced her back into her seat with a hand on her narrow shoulder._

 _"You are always welcomed here, dear," said Gaia, affable but guarded. "You are my successor. Go on and sit with your brothers and sisters. Enjoy the feast."_

 _"Are you saying that I have to stand for this?" asked Theia._

 _"She is a Meljanac, as such she is protected by the law of non-violence during_ summit _," said Gaia with finality. "Go, Medora, but the costume comes off."_

 _Pandora smiled. She reached under her chin to pierce into the skin and tugged the flesh affixed to the muscle underneath. The removal was painless. The aura that powered Hermes'_ Dress Rehearsal _disintegrated into a shiny orb that was sucked back into a narrow flask in her bag where it was originally stored. Simultaneously, her features adapted to their original state._

 _She sat between Apollo and Hermes._

 _"I installed a zipper for easy removal," said Hermes._

 _"They don't agree with you allowing a traitor like Pandora to still use your disguises."_

 _"Well, Panda shows them to the world."_

 _Pandora pressed her arm against Apollo's and admired her scowling audience. She smiled warmly at Hermes and brushed the blond strands of hair that fell across his left eye. "When else will such a beautiful ability make it onto the stage?"_

 _Hermes grinned._

 _Pandora caught Hera's murderous stare. "But you know, I thought I had killed Hera."_

 _"Persephone brought her from the brink."_

 _"Hmm, pencil her in for my grand exit." Pandora never had to try to kill a person twice before._

* * *

 _Pandora took the cushion at the squared table across Gaia as one of the Meljanac family's servants provided their terse evening conversation with black tea and cinnamon bread. Gaia introduced a temporary truce until she figured out a way to punish her for the chaos._

 _"You've grown," said Gaia. She took the first sip of the tea without taking her eyes off Pandora._

 _"Ten years will do that to you," said Pandora._

 _"Has it truly been ten years?" The feigned wonderment was a cushion before the insult and Pandora braced herself for it. "A lengthy time frame for so few accomplishments." Gaia cleared her throat and returned the porcelain cup to the surface of its matching saucer. "_ Accomplishments _is too generous when you achieved next to nothing."_

 _Pandora counted back from ten in her mind. "I want to talk about Callista."_

 _"This is what I am referring to when I say that your skills have dulled. You are still so fixated on how you feel for these other siblings that you forget how far above them you stand. The talent I spent fifteen years honing—wasted because your heart is weak," continued Gaia. "Your reputation as every man's whore is shameful to your family. So, tell me, Poppy Starling, have you found your way in yet?"_

 _Pandora grimaced._

 _"Vengeance is a silly desire," said Gaia. "I hoped that you would have come to understand that in your absence and let it go, that you would return to be molded into the obedient child you used to be, but it seems that I was not hard enough on you to rid of those bad habits. Worry not, my dear, you can be fixed."_

 _Pandora felt the weight of that word make its presence known upon her body. "Fixed?"_

 _"Devote your body and soul to this family once more."_

 _Pandora broke eye contact and clicked her tongue._

 _A crushing force slammed her upper body into the table and no amount of strength that she mustered relieved her of the pain of her bones crushing her organs. Shards of her broken mug and plate bit into her skin, lodging themselves so far in that she feared losing them._

 _Pandora coughed and blood splattered in front of her. She raised her eyes, searching for her mother, who watched her with a cold stare._

 _"I will no longer tolerate your defiance," said Gaia. "You are no longer a child. Stage another of your grand exits again and I will not hesitate to kill you, no matter how much your power is worth."_

 _The crushing aura drained from Pandora's body once Gaia left the room. It took half an hour for Pandora to regain the strength to move._

 _Apollo and Hermes took her into their shared lodgings to remove the porcelain shards from inside her skin and pressed plasters on the tiny cuts. Both of them stayed with her to guard her against her enemies and many waited for them to drop their guards to strike, making rest impossible to attain._

 _She sat up in the middle of the night and stared at the wall. Hermes asleep next to her and she noticed Apollo outside._

 _Pandora joined Apollo. His much larger frame dwarfed her. He started up at the blackened sky, leaning forward on the railing of the balcony. She sensed the maddening frustration that swirled in him as the few visible stars twinkled a message only he could understand, yet it likely felt unfair to him. Rules were broken to take Callista's life, but their mother would pardon it if that meant lassoing Pandora home._

 _"Familial ties are laughable," said Pandora. "Do not let them weaken you."_

 _"Do you mean that? Truly?" asked Apollo, every measured word dripping venom. He did not look her way. He couldn't. She noticed his hands fisting at his sides._

 _"Mourn her and let her go. If she is dead, then she was too weak to stand among us."_

 _Apollo grabbed her by the collar of her shirt._

 _She shouldn't have come. "If you plan to behave like this because of something so small, then I do not need you moving forward."_

 _He released her and dropped his gaze to the shadowed ground between them. "I understand."_

 _"You and Hermes still have a chance to make names for yourselves in this career," said Pandora. "Stay professional."_

 _"What if we're not suited for the job either?"_

 _"Then be like me, retire and find what you want." Pandora leaned against the railing of the balcony. "The world's huge. It's fun, too. We've been killing people all our lives for money, but maybe we're meant to do more."_

 _"Is that why you left us all behind? You could've forced Mother into retirement and filled her role, changed how things are done."_

 _"I killed our brother to become this family's successor," said Pandora. "Nobody cared. I was just stronger than him, more skilled, better practiced, willing to devote myself to the family and our success. I shouldn't have batted an eye, just continued training, but it bothered me to feel like I was the only one that cared." Even Panos understood he wouldn't survive the day. He sank down to his knees in front of her and sacrificed himself to her. "Mother made it seem like there was something wrong with me, but what I felt is normal. A twisted normal, but it made sense that I didn't belong here."_

I have never felt so pitiful.

 _Pandora patted Apollo's arm. "I appreciate your loyalty and I will repay it in kind. This is the only acceptable bond between us. That is how we survive in our diverging worlds."_

 _She headed toward the balcony door._

 _"What will you do after you've killed the head of the Saturn Lily?" asked Apollo._

 _She paused and smiled. "I will find something new to conquer."_

* * *

 _Pandora rented a cheap motel room in Flore where she agreed to meet her brothers beforehand._

 _"Congratulations on making the Top Three for Harvest," said Hermes, a laptop propped on the squared table surrounded by dozens of assorted flavored chips and different iced coffee options that had warmed. "I was surprised to find Pandora's jobs were still included in the pool."_

 _"How're you ranking if you're retired?" asked Apollo, his brawny arms folded across his wide chest._

 _"Killing makes a solid living," said Pandora. "Plus, I was helping out with Callista, too, for all that helped."_

 _Apollo shot her a glare and she shrugged. She chose not to speak of Callista. She pushed the image of her face so far out of her mind where she would surely forget it._

 _"Where did I place?" asked Apollo._

 _"Second. That puts you at about ten assassinations on top of Dio."_

 _"Carpo and Eos are up for Harvest."_

 _"Conditions."_

 _"If they manage to meet the conditions set by Mother, she might issue a pardon, but they're going to need to make up for all the jobs they failed to complete."_

 _Pandora reclined on the pillows she stacked against the headboard and sighed. "Tell me everything I need to know about the Troupe that I don't already know."_

 _"Every loose link I sent to investigate them turned up dead."_

 _"And most of them are from Meteor City, right?" asked Apollo._

 _"The ones that have been a part of the troupe longer, it seems, but you're going to need to go in blind. This Chrollo Lucilfer is a bit like you."_

 _"As dashing as me?" asked Pandora._

 _"No, more on the lines of he goes to you, not you to him." Hermes continued to tap on the keys of his computer, the screen of his laptop reflected in his eyes. "Are you sure Illumi won't help?"_

 _"We have a no-client share policy," said Pandora. "It keeps our relationship interesting that way. I don't get Chrollo. He doesn't get Bondur."_

 _"Does that name sound familiar?" asked Apollo._

 _"Did you already forget?" asked Pandora, annoyed by his lack of interest in the subject. "We met at that rare installation of gems held three years ago. He introduced himself. Asked if we were going to get in his way?" Pandora had raised her hands in a sign of surrender. They had already been paid for the night and she didn't want to fight him. Apollo threatened to, but she knocked him out._

 _"Not the Phantom Troupe head, the Bondur fella."_

 _"Mega-rich cult leader with a kill list as big as Mt. Olympia," said Hermes. "He took a liking to Pandora when he saw her, you threatened to eviscerate him for looking in her direction?"_

 _"Did I ever do it?" Apollo grumbled, his expression darkened._

 _"This isn't about Bondur." Pandora waved him off. "Go on, Hermes."_

 _"It'd be easier to join their group," said Hermes. "You just kill one of its members and replace them. Surely with your power, they won't say no."_

 _"That sounds boring, so no thanks. All I need is one good idiot to provide an introduction and I can work my magic from there. Find me an idiot. Better yet, show them to me, I'll choose."_

* * *

 _It turned out harder to track down all of the spiders without any of them taking notice and she observed most of them with disinterest. None of them_ were _her type. All of them looked like angry people, no fun at all. The last member of the spiders took them to Heaven's Arena and to keep from drawing attention to themselves, they wore Hermes' nen disguises._

 _"He likes to hang around here," said Apollo, the boyish charm of Panos marred by the disapproval wrinkling his forehead._

 _"He was in the Hunter Exam with me when I took it last year," said Hermes, wearing Athena's skin with worry shining in his eyes. "He's interested in strong fighters and people with great potential."_

 _Pandora sported the younger physique of Apollo's twin, Artemis, and wore her hair in a high blond ponytail. "_ Anyone _we know?"_

 _Hermes shrugged._

 _It took some snooping around gossip currents outside the tower for them to gain some information. Apollo signed up for the fights to offer them a cover and he climbed to the top at a steady pace with a couple of interesting looking kids. He befriended one of them and learned one of the other ones was a Zoldyck. Pandora reprimanded him for it and jogged his mind as to why they were at the tower in the first place._

 _"There weren't any tickets left since it was last minute, but I swiped these from some assholes that hit on me outside the bathroom." Hermes distributed the tickets and thrust snacks into their arms. "I made dinner reservations for us after the match."_

 _The Hisoka vs. Kastro fight ended faster that Pandora_ bet _that day. She and Hermes lost ten million_ jenny _each to Apollo for predicting longer times. She didn't deny that the fight hadn't sparked her interest, but it provoked something else in her that she hadn't been prepared to feel. Hisoka wasn't her type—too tall and creepy-looking—but he drew her eye. As soon as he had stepped onto the stage, Pandora was captivated by his cruel aura._

 _Pandora stuffed her mouth full of chocolate orbs. "Is there no other way?"_

 _"Hisoka is the only one that would be willing to betray information for his own personal gain," said Hermes._

 _"You're never this hesitant," said Apollo._

 _"He spells complications in the future," said Pandora. "If I become his target, he won't rest until I'm dead. I need a cleaner entryway."_

 _"You didn't like any of the other options and I doubt they'd let you question their leader." Hermes waved his hand dismissively. "He doesn't seem as gloomy as the other ones."_

 _"Well no…"_

 _"If he becomes too troublesome, kill him." Apollo stood, and with a look of disgust, added, "He'd probably like it, too."_

 _"But he's lovely to watch." Pandora rose, chocolate orbs tumbling from her shirt, and zeroed in on Hisoka as he left the ring. He sacrificed both arms to this battle. "He seems like a reckless fighter, very stupid. Lovely, though."_

 _Apollo and Hermes exchanged quiet looks._

 _She hated this knowing exchange of information between her brothers and grimaced, feeling left out. "What?"_

 _"I didn't think you'd become a fan," said Apollo._

 _"I had a hunch," said Hermes._

Hisoka would make a good distraction.

* * *

 **Thank you for the reviews!**

Some background was in order and more is to be revealed within the next 2-3 chapters. I will see you then! Thank you for reading!


	10. The One that Spins Chaos

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **10**.

 _The One that Spins Chaos  
_

* * *

Pandora drew the bloody handkerchief from her nose after shutting herself inside the motel room's bathroom and watched the ruby liquid seep into the cotton, spreading across its white surface a pale pink shade. Hisoka broke her nose. If she hadn't doubled the dosage of the drug, he would've done worse. She set the bone with a push of her thumb and the blood flowed past her chin, leaving stains across her navel. She returned the handkerchief to her face with a curse and struggled into a sleeveless crop top and underwear.

"This won't end well," said Illumi from where he leaned against the wall. The broken frame hung at an angle beside him reflection her actions as she stood. "You shouldn't play with your food. It's bad manners."

Pandora smiled. "How precious, you're worried."

"Your ability is too valuable to lose over something this foolish."

She didn't argue. He had a point.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to go this far if you would've agreed to share clients."

Illumi remained unexpressive, but a tiny spike in his aura gave away his annoyance. "We have an agreement."

"I'm not saying I mind," said Pandora. "I didn't think I'd get a kick out of Hisoka like this." She turned to Illumi. "But don't worry, once I strike a deal with him and get what I want, I'll let him go free so you two can continue your 'will they or won't they' relationship. Thank you for the hard work."

Illumi's eyebrows knitted slightly. "Why didn't you take the chairman's job? You were promised double if you succeeded in using your ability on one of the targets."

"Are you keeping an eye on me?" asked Pandora, a smile playing on her lips. "Or did your father comment on it over dinner?"

"Just wire the money to my account," Illumi said, heading out the door.

Pandora chuckled. Guess he didn't really want to know.

She slid into a comfortable pair of pants and stretched her cramped limbs. She rolled her neck and sighed. It felt good to be back in her own skin. Selene's body maintained the rigidness she exhibited in life and it barred her movements. The beauty of Dress Rehearsal was that the tailoring of its nen costumes made disguising as easy as slipping on a different outfit, but it limited its user by confining them to the capabilities of the skin being worn. Selene went through the same training Pandora did in life, but her muscles were always wound too tight ranking her among the slowest fighters in the Meljanac family. Pandora struggled to wear Selene because she capped her abilities. She continued to push the costume until it was tearing at the seams to keep Hisoka interested and the nen giving it life stole its luster. Hisoka helped to wear it out.

Peter was unusable after Hisoka tore into it.

Hermes will be hysterical. She didn't want to deal with it, but her brothers were due to arrive within the hour after a delay in their airship.

Pandora sank into the springy bed next to Hisoka and exhaled. She picked up his hand and threaded her fingers between his. She stared up at his profile and fought back a smile, her stomach giddy. She turned over, lying on her stomach, and kicked her legs up, swinging them back and forth. He looked lovely so unguarded.

* * *

Pandora enjoyed the journey home to the tiny island of Bahn. It boasted a population of 20,000 scattered across a single major city and tiny hovel towns surrounded by dense forests. Before Pandora tried to assassinate the entire Meljanac family, it used to pride itself on their protection—at least those that believed a whole family of killers lived in an abandoned temple past the farmlands. The Meljanac base had since been moved to an undisclosed location, thus allowing Pandora to nest in the deserted headquarters.

It took three hours by airship from Deene city and a five-hour bus ride to the closest stop. Pandora opted for a truck rental as the trip was made with Hisoka sealed inside a crate. It functioned as a warning. If the drugs wore off and he broke free, Pandora and her brothers would have enough time to counter whatever form his attack took. They ran through a thousand different simulations until they devised a successful counterattack for each.

Apollo drove with a soured look in his emerald eyes and limited conversation with monosyllabic responses. Hermes rejected the next stages of their plan out of spite, furious that Hisoka ruined two of his designs. Not one, but two, he reminded her throughout the trip, repeating the story to anyone willing to listen despite her promise to provide replacements for Selene and Peter. Pandora relaxed as he ranted, resting her head on Hermes' shoulder, and dozed as a balmy breeze kissed her face.

She surfaced from light slumber when the long road turned bumpy and watched the landscape blur into green and blue. She woke fully when the smell of corn invaded her senses and flooded her thoughts. The high green stalks rose as Apollo drove up the incline and her body warmed with familiarity, their scent mingled with the cold twisted in her belly. She used to run through the towering stalks chasing her younger siblings, imparting onto them the tricks to avoiding their mother's punishments as well as tips to adapting to the cruel and ambitious mistresses of the family.

The curious girl she had once been lured a farmer's son into her family's field and, in a bed of flattened stalks, she mounted him with the front of her skirt pinched between her lips. Her boldness made him squirm and his hands were clumsy. His emotions were tangible like the heat that radiated between them and bore down on her back. Her mother promised her virginity to an elusive target and Pandora refused to give up control in her life. She forced her unprepared body to take the boy in and could not imagine sex as anything other than painful. She never spoke to him again, though she tried to spare him the death her mother delivered. None of it mattered. Her mother auctioned her off successfully and Pandora killed the target.

Pandora tried to ground her wandering mind as the farmlands blurred past the car. Her father carried her on his shoulders when she was a toddler. Her first memory was of her small hands straining to rip the green leaves, that and of his large hand pressing its heat into her back.

She buried his bones in the garden east of the temple by the soft whispers of a stream across rocks, among crowded cypress trees swallowed by spindly overgrown bushes, and a moss-covered lantern made of stone. She dug deep until her nails had broken and the tips of her fingers crusted with dirt and blood.

Hermes shook her awake. The shade of the red cedar trees along the road cooled her perspired skin.

She drank deep from the plastic gallon of water shared between them and cursed the powerful sun threatening to sear the skin off her back. She didn't miss the climate. Summers were hotter than a lava bath and winters were the extreme opposite, the shuttered windows rattled by tundra-like conditions. But springs birthed color in the temple's gardens with red azaleas, that survived every generation to live in the temple, and camellias sprouting from the evergreen, the epitome of natural beauty without a fragrance to distinguish them from the damp earthy smell rising from the grass. The fall was a sunset drop outside her perch on her windowsill, the trees shedding leaves from brittle branches. She didn't mind them.

Apollo took a roundabout route carrying the crate above his head to the residential quarters behind the main hall. Hermes waited for her lethargy to pass and followed three steps behind her to the northern gate. She crossed the threshold of the center and walked along the central road that split between the grass to the dilapidated temple.

It stood a monument despite the wear of age that had rotted its wooden frame or the shattered black roof tiles that had since been replaced with wooden planks to keep the water from leaking inside. Giant statues once lived within its high-ceilinged interior among the crisscrossed cypress wood beams. The tallest had been forty feet tall and her mother often commanded her to stay off it, but Pandora loved the peaceful expression on the bronze deity's statue. She spent hours with her back pressed against a wooden beam, straddling another, mesmerized by the wisdom in its eyes shining through the aged alloy and the modest upturn of its lips. She wondered what pleased this god so, what wisdom he boasted in his eyes, how much compassion he bore for the assassins nesting in his temple.

The day she left, one of the Meljanac mistresses challenged her as she exited the main hall and planned to use the chaos of the evening to kill Pandora during a time when fewer repercussions were likely. Pandora shattered the bronze statue she loved to escape and it tore into her worse than the flesh wound Hera inflicted. The chunks of the broken alloy were left to decorate the hall for when Pandora returned and she kept them like that after she did, afraid the building would lose the peace it once commanded and steal away the laughter of the brother that balanced on the red beams with her telling her stories from the books he had taken from the library without permission about brighter worlds, parallel existences to their underground lives.

Because detached words like "I birthed you and thus you are worthy" were poor substitutions for love in their family and Pandora loved no one quite like she loved Panos.

This was no longer a home, only a temporary shelter.

"Did he know about the Saturn Lily?" asked Hermes.

Pandora shook her head.

"I don't understand your obsession with him." Hermes' tenor dropped, smothered by his disapproval. "You should've pursued your other options."

"You said Hisoka was the best option and you're right. He has no loyalty to anyone but himself and his ambitions," said Pandora. "I can give him what he wants, he can give me what I want. I don't understand your need to feel jealous."

"Then why waste months in a cat-and-mouse game? Why not make him an offer he couldn't turn down from the start?" Hermes' anger engulfed him. "You lured him to that bar in Deene city to give him that choice, but you fought him instead. You didn't need to play your hand or show him your power, you just needed to grab his attention and present your hand."

Hermes was her brother. He wouldn't understand what it felt like to have Hisoka crowd her in that elevator, to take her neck into his hand and breath down her lips, to have the heat of their bodies mingle into a trap of desire. His low voice, his aura like death's caress on her skin, and the promise of a sick, compelling devotion to destroying her rattled her. It was so perverse, so beautiful.

"I wanted to enjoy him." Pandora looked over her shoulder to her younger brother. "All of him."

Hermes frowned. "He could've killed you."

"He didn't, but not for a lack of trying."

"He can still betray you."

"I trust that as long as the circumstances aren't thrilling, he won't."

"And if he does it anyway?"

"I'll strike first."

Apollo rejoined them with a grim expression. His arms folded across his chest. "You should've gotten the Troupe leader's location and killed him."

"You both are about the worst accomplices I've ever employed." Pandora huffed and pushed past them. "You are grown men; this sister complex needs to end."

She stopped halfway down the road toward the temple and caught them scheming behind her back. "Touch Hisoka and you're dead. Understand?"

* * *

 **Thank you for the reviews!**

I had time to edit another chapter so I figured I could edit this one as well since it wasn't so long.

To those that read the first version, I think you may have run into familiar text. I reused a couple of paragraphs that were more relevant to this chapter than they had been in the previous context.

Hisoka returns in the next chapter...

I'll see you then. Thank you for reading!


	11. Exchange

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **11**.

 _Exchange_

* * *

Pandora ventured to the underground arena on the Meljanac property. She occupied the same high seat her mother had occupied on the stands around the sandy ground where she had watched the Meljanac children test their skills. Pandora had bathed the white sands with the blood of her siblings and her father's bastards. She had stood upon them undefeated until her mother crushed her with her power, broke nearly every bone in her body, to show every member of the family that her time had not passed.

The fluorescent lights bore on her back, the heat prickling the surface of her skin. Apollo had followed his orders—though reluctant to serve any purpose benefiting Hisoka—without too many complaints.

Hisoka was set upon the blood-soaked sands and he'd be in a mood to kill after she drugged him. She prepared a sacrifice, another Meljanac assassin-in-training like Carpo that would tide over his bloodthirst. She planned to do the rest.

The elaborate plan didn't start as complicated. Pandora wanted to meet the man that fronted the Saturn Lily organization. He murdered her father. He had done it in an instant and slithered back into his darkness never to be seen or heard from again until he surfaced a second time to collect a reward he had bought from the Phantom Troupe, but this had been before Hisoka joined.

Hisoka was a means to an end. They shared the same target, except she only wanted to make a deal with Chrollo Lucilfer and Hisoka wanted to fight him to the death, but Festival Time rolled in. This resulted in her social calendar overflowing with new events.

Pandora had taken her time with Hisoka. She studied him, learned all there was to know about him and became the type of person that he wouldn't be able to shake. She created a whole new persona out of Selene's character. She needed to be interesting enough to attract his attention long enough to sink her claws into him required the unraveling of a drab story—an ex-assassin enamored with money that would do just about anything but kill to get more despite her wasteful nature being a constant obstacle in her life. Someone with potential that squandered it. That'd annoy him.

He fell. Not as neatly into her trap, but he stepped into her territory and played her game with her rules. She enjoyed him.

Pandora sat closer to the edge of the seat. Hisoka's fingers twitched over the grains of sand. Conscious returned to him as the powerful drug released him of its crutches slowly.

Hisoka rose and rubbed his face. He locked eyes with her from across the ring and he rushed headlong towards her, his bloodlust weakened her knees.

She observed the suit cards in his hands and tracked them each, evading them with ease, but Hisoka appeared before her. Her heart skipped a beat.

She questioned his speed. How did he cover this much ground in the blink of an eye? The drug should have left him sluggish. She raised her hands to defend against his punch, but she didn't put enough energy to ground her feet and she was hurled back into the wall when the hit connected.

Crap. Reset.

Pandora laughed as she moved out of the way of his next strike, but he was relentless. She needed to stall until Apollo returned. Careful not to drain too much aura. She had one more chance to void his nen. If she didn't meet the conditions, she would have to fight with Null alone and that put her at a disadvantage with the flexibility of his Bungee Gum. She was confident in her physical strength if it came down to it alone, she could overpower him as long as circumstances were ideal.

Hisoka surrendered to his bloodlust and it captivated her—watching him tear through another with an appropriately calculating method stole the breath from her lungs. There was no reasoning him. He required appeasement.

She took a solid punch across the face to seize his arm. She pushed up hard against the elbow until she heard the bone dislocate, but it didn't faze him. His mouth widened into a chilling smile that strummed slowly down her spine. She reeled him in because he let her or had it been the other way around.

She twisted around and hurled him as far from her as she could, but she sensed the cards flying towards her in time to evade them. One sliced across her shoulder. A shallow cut.

Hisoka landed on the sand and he sprang to her, but his attack connected with an adult-sized red clay doll that shattered. Shards splintered like a bursting flower and rained down around them, slicing through the air.

Hisoka halted, aware that he was outnumbered. She doubted it daunted him. He looked more pleased by Apollo's appearance.

Apollo's mood was obvious in his knitted eyebrows and furious aura that rattled the joints of his remaining three dolls.

Eos, their half-sister, squirmed against the leather bonds. She was the last of Theia's children. Without her, she would lose power as a mistress and she'd be a prime contender for the sort of death Pandora was dying to deliver.

Pandora cleaned the blood from the corner of her mouth and approached Hisoka, confident that he wouldn't strike. "Killing me like this won't be any fun." She placed her hands on his shoulder and turned him around. "Have an appetizer first."

"How romantic," said Hisoka.

Apollo released Eos of her bounds and handed her a jagged-edged dagger. "You kill him and you're free to go."

Eos died instantly. She didn't even have the opportunity to raise her weapon. She didn't slake Hisoka's appetite and his eyes narrowed at Pandora, the merriment in them a shield for the fight he planned to wring out of her. He stilled because of Apollo and her ability. This was how he intended to survive.

Pandora had no doubt in her mind that Hisoka believed her could kill both of them. She enjoyed that arrogance—his belief that he alone possessed the power to strike any target, but he wanted people that could match his strength, give him the thrill he desired.

"I'm not leaving," said Apollo.

"You will," said Pandora, watching Hisoka stalk to her. "I'll convince him before this week is out."

"He will kill you."

"Only if she lets her guard down," said Hisoka, eyeing her like he wanted to devour her. Her stomach tingled with morbid fascination. "I'm famished."

Pandora smiled. "I'm not good at staying dead."

"I like things that are hard to kill."

"Pandora."

"Take Hermes and go. If you are still on the island by nightfall"—she glared at Apollo—"I'll personally murder you both."

Apollo's jaw tightened, but he went, his dolls dragging Eos' corpse between them.

Hisoka stepped closer to her and she craned her neck to meet his gaze.

"This body seems to please you more," said Pandora, pressing her hand to his erection.

"It's more powerful than the others." He slid a hand down the curve of her back to her ass. "More resilient, too."

"You'd be surprised."

\- : -

Pandora walked Hisoka to the residential quarters. He paused at the entrance to glance in her direction. He sensed no one and that smelled more like a trap than if the whole property had been full of people.

She exhaled. "You're very cautious."

"Wouldn't you be?" asked Hisoka.

"It's not like we're not having any fun," said Pandora, a smile dancing across her lips. "You don't know what's happening and I don't know what you'll do to get out of your situation." She slid the door open and gestured toward the right hallway. "After you."

Hisoka stepped inside first. "Should you be showing me your headquarters? Keeping a watch on me by yourself."

"If I nullify your ability to use nen, I'm stronger."

"Otherwise, I'm stronger?"

"It depends on the circumstances."

She invested in reparations to keep the residence quarters habitable, so the wide building had all the necessary utilities functioning. She made infrequent visits but liked prioritizing comfort so she ensured the availability of all amenities as well as provided Hermes the funds for its upkeep.

The wooden floors smelled of pine blanketed in snow and smothered the sound of her footsteps, choosing instead to echo the heel of Hisoka's shoes. Open shuttered windows welcomed the balmy breezes rustling through the high trees shading the grass in front of the two-story building. The little bit of sunshine that spilled through the spaces between leaves fell across the dark wood allowing their shadows to cast low across the walls.

Pandora opened the door to the entrance room in front of the bathroom. She planned to leave him alone and think about a way to approach the conversation, but Hisoka tugged her inside. The sealed shut door behind her back was soon pressed against her when he caged her inside his arms. She had no intention of sleeping with him. She gave him access to her body because it suited the character she played. She was curious, too. It had been a while since she last indulged with a man she had chosen without money exchanging hands and it felt good when he obliged her.

He said something along the lines of joining him in the bath, but she hadn't paid attention to the sounds he'd been making, too focused on the lewd shape of his lips moving, recalling them as they roamed her skin. Sex while using one of Hermes' costumes wasn't like having sex in her own flesh. She felt the pleasure, his hands memorizing the shape of her, his mouth on her—all of her—but it was as if he had done all of those things through a thin veil. How long had it been since she had last given her own body over to another?

Pandora wordlessly reached for his shirt and he tugged it over his head, casting it into the rectangular wicker basket. He drew her in by the sash of her robe and slid a finger into the knot, pulling it loose. She let it slide from her shoulders and threw it with his shirt. The white tank top she wore tucked into high waisted pants had gone through so many washes it was transparent and his wandering gaze settled there, observant of the way her nipples strained against the thin fabric.

Hisoka brushed his knuckles against one and the tension in her muscles eased.

He stepped out of his shoes. She removed the ribbon holding her hair up and the long colorless tickled her back.

"That's cheating. I'm half naked."

"You should wear more clothes."

Hisoka cupped her face in his hand and mushed it together, forcing her into an exaggerated pucker. He chuckled.

Pandora tugged his hands from her face and reminded him that it was his turn. He looped his thumbs into the band of his pants and relieved himself of them. He wore nothing underneath and impressed her with his distended cock. She kept her eyes on his but her hands twitched with the desire to press her palms against his hard chest.

She unbuttoned her pants and he pushed them past her hips, using the opportunity to hoist her up into his arms. He kissed her.

She wrapped around him and felt tempted to give in to her baser desires. His tongue darted into her mouth and she eagerly tasted him but started to draw back. She hesitated. This wasn't a good idea.

His grip around her tightened. He sensed her attempts to get away and he wouldn't let her leave.

Hisoka didn't bother preparing her. He thrust his engorged cock into her all at once. She shifted with a groan. She ached and reached down between them, flinching when she attempted to push him out. He pressed in, his eyes never leaving her face.

His dick twitched deep inside of her. He started to withdraw, but she wasn't wet enough for it to be the least bit pleasurable for either of them. He only minded it less. She tightened around him painfully and vocalized her discomfort.

Pandora grabbed a handful of his hair and tugged hard. "Foreplay is important! I can't get turned on as fast as you do!"

"But you do adjust quickly."

She moaned as he thrust in shallowly before she protested again. Faster. There. More right there. She lost herself wrapped up in him, her back against the wall, her sweat soaked into her transparent shirt, and the lewd sound of her body sucking him in over and over and over to the sure rhythm of his hips slapping into her ass. She touched herself to ease penetration, rubbing circles over her clit until the pain transformed.

Hisoka bruised her neck with his lips and teased her nipples with fleeting touches that left her aching for a little more—his hot mouth enveloping one and rolling it around his tongue. She would've killed for a more intimate kiss, even if he bit her again. She only wished for him to take his time tasting her pleasure on his tongue and that as she grew desperate in the onset of orgasm that he held her writhing body down, drinking every last drop.

She opened her mouth and sucked in a breath, stroking herself faster as she imagined what she wished he did.

He groaned at her ear, cursed. "You're close. I can feel it."

She moved against his piston-like movements, directing each thrust to where she felt the most satisfaction. She threw her head back and closed her eyes, her body hot and her insides spasming around his dick. The words that fell from her lips fell apart into pants on the precipice of her orgasm. She felt Hisoka's eyes steady on her skin, searing into it. She shuddered as her climax prickled under the surface of her skin and spread, flowing across her body.

Hisoka slowed, his hard cock sliding easily in and out of her. He drew out almost all the way, save for the tip of its slick head and slipped in all the way. His amber gaze fixed on the action. He licked his lips and moaned the next time he shoved inside of her. Oh, God. She cried out as she rode out her climax.

She kissed him as he came, his entire body quaking in her arms. Goosebumps appeared on her skin, a cold fire set underneath it. She relaxed as he set her on her feet. Her skin tingled. She was sensitive to the touch. She patted the door behind her, searching for the handle to step out, but he reached for her neck.

She slapped his hand away and it amused him.

Pandora stepped past him into the bathroom and sat down on the stool. She opened the water and held the sprayer over her head. She washed her body thoroughly and went to soak in the large bath. She watched Hisoka follow her lead, mesmerized by the flex of his muscles. She needed a better hobby. Her brothers were right, this was a terrible idea.

"I suppose now that I have you where I want you we should drop all airs and have an honest chat," said Pandora.

Hisoka continued to shampoo his hair. "Hmmm?"

"Don't worry, I'll sweeten the deal."

"You have nothing to offer," he said. "Unless you want to fight me."

"I've annoyed you, I know," she said, shrugging. "It had to be done, unfortunately."

"You planned this from the start?"

"Down to the last detail." Pandora cupped water into her hands and splashed the warm liquid onto her face. "I need to get close to the head of the Saturn Lily, but there is more conjecture on him than fact. Some time ago, however, my brother discovered a link to him through a little band of thieves called The Phantom Troupe. Ring a bell?"

Hisoka chuckled, but his interest was on display. He turned to give her his full attention. "Your information is outdated."

"Weren't you masquerading as a member of the Troupe for at most three years?"

"I see, you want to use me to get close to a certain someone," he said teasingly.

"Bingo."

"And if I say no?"

"I don't mind if you say no, but as slippery as Chrollo Lucilfer is, I always get what I want." Pandora turned her hand over, ripples shattering her reflection in the water. "Once I do, I'm going to do some thorough clean up ala Saar Ozwell."

Hisoka glowered, his mood soured. "Chrollo is my prey."

She leaned into the bath. "Thus, my proposal. You help me and I help you. I just want to talk to Chrollo about the Saturn Lily, see what he knows or what he's willing to tell me, and you want to fight him. I know he's evaded you since you helped exorcize his problem. I can convince him to stop running away from a fight."

He humored him. "Oh, you can?"

"Let's just say that I have something he wants. He just doesn't know it yet."

Hisoka finished washing off and joined her inside the bath, relaxing on the other end. "How long have you been tracking me?"

"Heaven's Arena, a little earlier before the fights that earned you Floor Master," she replied.

"Then you had an opportunity to meet Chrollo in Yorknew."

"I did," she said. "I kept an eye on that Blacklist Hunter that was after him. Figured someone that eager to track them down might actually lead me somewhere, but I ran into personal complications. Chrollo is rarely alone and most of the Troupe members are hard to deal with. I've been personally banned from challenging any one of them."

"Why?"

"Do you need to ask?"

"Your ability."

"It's too useful apparently." Pandora waved her hand dismissively. "I recently had someone contact me for a mission, but it fell through out of fear that I'd be killed during it, skilled as I may be. Things are pretty dangerous south of the Yorbian continent if you haven't heard."

"You don't look like the cautious type."

"I have my own goals."

"And they are?"

Pandora smiled, settling between his legs. She ran her hands down his chest. "The Saturn Lily. That's all you need to know. So, do we have a deal?"

"Sweeten it."

She captivated his interest. She saw it spark to life in his eyes. "What do you want?"

He raised two fingers. "I want to see what you want with this Saturn Lily."

Pandora didn't like that, but her expression remained neutral. She'd find a way to shake him off when she needed it. "Fine."

"And a fight."

"Shocking."

"You work your special charm on Chrollo and I fight you after I kill him."

 _Or he kills you and there's no fight._ She leaned closer and felt his hands move down to her waist, guiding her onto his lap. "Fine."

"I lost track of him following you around, but I can find him in a matter of days."

"That's fine. I have time." She kissed him. "And I want to enjoy you as much as I can before then."

"Should you be so trusting?"

"Nobody said anything about trust."

Hisoka laughed. "Well, you have your deal, now what?"

"I plan to fuck you for an entire week before we leave the island."

"Don't I get a say?" he teased.

"We could always spend the rest of the week preparing for our long and arduous journey." She moved back to her end of the tub and propped her elbow on one side of it. She stared at his blurred reflection on the water's surface. "You're a very important guest, so I want you to be comfortable while we wait for the next airship."

"You sure you'll be safe on your own? Don't need your—"

"Let's get one thing straight, my brothers aren't around to keep me safe, they're around to keep everyone else alive."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

This is turning into...something.


	12. Terms and Conditions

**Horticulture**

* * *

 **12**.

 _Terms and Conditions_

* * *

Pandora listened to the creaks of the house throughout the night as she stared at the ceiling above her bed. _Do I have to replace the wooden floors? Put in new screen doors? Was that a branch scrapping the window? The trees needed trimming. When did the gardeners come in?_ She compiled a list of the extra repairs needed around the residential quarters, disappointed that they had managed to slip through the cracks during renovations.

 _Maybe the house needs to be broken in properly?_ Pandora sat up. Her room doused in the moon's generous light, radiant to the point of annoyance. Her shelves were neatly stacked with books, Hermes organized them by size and color, the closet door was opened to an aperture, emanating a feeling similar to the dark entrance to limbo.

She kicked off her blankets and slipped out. There were a few other things that needed a quick fix as she walked out of the building.

The island of Bahn had a backward philosophy in regard to transportation in and out of it, which had made it a perfect base for a family of assassins that preferred staying hidden. Back when it acted as the base for the Meljanac, they had the influence to move freely without coming across issues as their jobs took them all around the map. Pandora had not lost the sway her name carried, but Hisoka didn't know that when she had imposed their week-long stay. She didn't entirely trust that she'd entice him enough to hold up his end of the bargain, not to mention the circumstances needed to be ideal to the self-serving magician else he wouldn't hesitate to stab her in the back.

Hisoka couldn't be controlled. She understood that and wasn't making any foolish attempts to take his freedom when it was one of his best qualities. She had her eyes set on his chaotic nature—his underlying desires, no matter how dark and depraved. That could be regulated.

Pandora stopped in front of the temple's gigantic redwood doors when she noticed they were open. She entered the high-ceilinged room and wadded past the broken chunks of the bronze statue that she had loved for so long to reach Hisoka. He stood before the altar where the god once sat in peace admired by all. The clustered candles burned bright, wax melted into bulbous mounds, and cast a darker sheen on Hisoka's pale skin. The bitter scent from the aloeswood lingered long after the incense burnt out, the tiny embers of the dark wood smoldered red inside the canisters that held them.

"Did you miss me?" asked Hisoka, grinning at her. "I would've woken you, but you were so tired after our dip in the pond. I thought you had more stamina than that."

"I wasn't that excited." Pandora exaggerated a shrug.

"Have we hit a slump in our relationship?" Hisoka held a hand to his lips, appearing as concerned as he sounded, though an amused quality clung to his tone, sewn underneath every word.

"We should break up. The sex might be better."

"You read too many bad advice columns."

Pandora held her hands behind her back and stared at the empty space where her god once sat in revelry. "Well, what do you suggest?"

"Let's go hunting for someone strong to kill." Hisoka's eyes shone brightly in the candlelight and she'd be lying if she said she wasn't attracted to his devotion to his goal. "Maybe kill one of your brothers."

"I need them."

"The one you need less then."

She imagined where this would end. Corner one of her brothers, kill him, and get off on the adrenaline rush. This wouldn't work. It was too early to sacrifice Apollo or Hermes.

Hisoka appeared in front of her face. "Is that a no?"

"Already looking for your next meal?"

"The appetizers weren't satisfying."

"Don't worry, more will come," said Pandora.

"As strong as you?"

"Oh, definitely," she said, enthused.

Hisoka straightened to his full height and resumed his position next to her, standing much closer than before as he stared off into the same empty space as she did. "So, what are you? If not the dysfunctional, money-grubbing ex-assassin?"

She felt his eyes burning into the side of her face. "What do you make of me?"

"You're full of surprises, so I'm stumped."

"How unfortunate."

"You're trying to impress me," said Hisoka. He had taken a guess.

"Is it working?"

"What do you think?"

She met his amber gaze and smiled at him. He mirrored her Cheshire grin.

A cool wind whistled through the aperture of the temple's entrance and quieted in the open space. The tiny flames wobbled on the wicks of the candles and the fire sparked in his eyes. It'd be unfortunate for him to die, but it started to look like it'd be in her best interest if he did.

 _Impermanence. There is beauty in that which does not last_.

She reached up to touch his face. She couldn't wait to see him disappear.

* * *

Pandora rummaged through the mini fridge, craving a sour snack after she and Hisoka made the trip from the temple to a hotel near the small airport. She had convened with her brothers to adjust their orders with the new information that they had brought her. None of their half-siblings would dare come into the Island of Bahn, but plenty of them had been seen loitering around the airport in Deene city, planning an attack. None of them were on her Spare List, which meant they were free game.

The running water shut off as she sank into a seat on the edge of the bed, munching on a sun-dried tomatoes granola bar. She scrolled through her messages and picked through the high-paying jobs available that week. She sent the ones that she wanted to Hermes so that he'd approve them through the family's official system because she had yet to grow tired of everyone's reactions when she ended up in first place every Festival since she had betrayed her family.

Hisoka exited the bathroom with a towel draped across his shoulders. The steam from within tumbled out into the air-conditioned room.

"The first airship off the island is at noon tomorrow," said Pandora, mouth full of granola. The bar sticking out from between her lips.

Hisoka bent over her and took a bite out of the other end, droplets of water from the ends of his blond hair pattered across her face. "How long do you expect to stay in Deene city?"

"Overnight. Apollo and Hermes are going on ahead."

"So, what role do they play? Other than keeping their big sister safe?" He sat next to her, leaning against her body. The water that still clung to his flesh traveled along the tight musculature of his torso and sank into her skin, the cold stabbing into her bloodstream. "They following along?"

"I'm getting wet."

"Oh," he said, amused. He turned to pin her to the bed, one of his hands quick to slide down her pants to press into her sex. He frowned. "Dry as a wasteland."

She stared at him unimpressed with his wiggling digits. "I assume you have that effect on people."

Hisoka brought his fingers to his mouth and licked them. "Not something that can't be fixed."

Pandora caught his wrist. "Let's get things straight," she started. "This is a temporary _professional_ partnership. That means no more crossing the line. I gave you one week of doing whatever the hell you wanted, but from here on, we keep our hands off each other and focus on our goals."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Then we should give our sex lives a proper send-off." Hisoka nuzzled her neck and pushed her shirt up to fondle her breasts. "Right?"

She didn't resist. If he wasn't so hell-bent on fighting her, she'd keep him around for the sex, at least until they grew tired of each other.

"We have more conditions to discuss."

Hisoka kissed down her neck and took one of her nipples between his teeth, licking the pointed end. "Save it for the pillow talk."

"You're unreasonable."

* * *

Pandora hugged a pillow to her chest. Hisoka rested his cheek on her thigh at ease next to the bruising bite mark he left behind.

"This needs to stay goal-oriented," Pandora insisted. "Unless it has any relevance, we cannot fool around."

"Then, you'll have to find a way to keep things interesting for me," said Hisoka. "It'd be pointless to cooperate if I'm not getting anything out of it."

"You're allowed to see what I want with the Saturn Lily."

Hisoka shrugged. "I'm not that invested."

"And what will make it interesting?"

"It depends on my mood."

"Fine." Pandora set aside the pillow and sighed. "Anything else?"

"Nothing off the top of my head, but let's be smart and make this an open contract."

"I can agree to that. Be aware that I'm only going to give you as much information as you need to survive," said Pandora.

"You worried about me?" asked Hisoka, grinning.

"If you die, I have to switch to Plan D and I don't like it as much."

"What about Plans A and B?"

"Dead."

"Is Plan D romancing another spider?"

"Oh?" She rested her chin on the pillow and smiled at him. "Am I romancing you?"

He hummed appreciatively.

"Well, if that was Plan D, who would you suggest?" she asked.

"I wonder."

"You're not even a part of the Phantom Troupe and you still won't give up any information? Don't see the benefit?"

"No."

Pandora touched the corner of his eye and he opened it, staring up at her. "Did you hear about Festival from Illumi?"

"He may have mentioned it. Something about an archaic practice."

"Do you want to know what sets the Zoldycks apart from the Meljanacs? Quality. They are a single family with a bird's-eye focus on the quality of their product and that makes them stronger. The Meljanacs have quantity. We are five branches of the same family that focuses on producing as many assassins as possible to monopolize smaller markets requesting work while securing a strong foundation for the next generation through a competition dubbed Festival where the highest ranked assassins are at an advantage and those that failed to make the top ten are at risk of being Harvested, meaning they become prey for all participants. Carpo was one of this year's targets."

Hisoka turned over on his stomach, elbows propped up and his head resting on his hands. The man's ass was to die for and she took advantage of every opportunity to enjoy an eyeful. "So, what do you win if you kill the targets?"

"It isn't about winning anything. It's about eliminating the incompetent."

"So, how's it work for the next generation if you're killing off all the unripe fruit?"

"Festival is a part of a long chain of events that leads to the appointment of the next family head. It's a political mindfuck where the top ranks basically attempt to gain favor from the members within the family that have any influence in deciding who the next leader will be."

"Then killing the useless is a part of being a leader?" Hisoka laughed. "They're testing your mettle. How interesting."

"Why do you consider yourself worthy of leading if you will hesitate on a job?" she replied, the words echoing in her mind as her mother drilled them into her head.

"Have you ever hesitated?"

He was probing around for a weakness in her. He had been since she had revealed the true nature of their meeting. Perhaps that hadn't settled well in him or it riled him up more—she didn't know what to think and that made him a thousand times more intriguing than any other partner she had had to work with to date, but also all the more dangerous.

His question hurled her back into the underground arena with her mother's gaze boring down on her back as Pandora fisted her bloody hands, droplets kissing the sand, spreading upon their pale grains a watercolor pink. Panos crumpled at her feet, frozen with his arms across his spilling insides.

"No."

"That was a long pause."

"It was a mercy kill," she whispered.

"What was?"

She snapped out of her trance, chased away the thoughts. "Nothing."

Hisoka sat up. "Where do you stand in these rankings? Are you allowed to participate after killing some of your own on your way out?"

"I'm up for Harvest, too."

"You that bad at your work?"

"No, I ranked first, but it seems my rebellious phase hasn't gone away as my mother first anticipated, so she's taken a harsher approach."

"Bet you'd make the impressive kill if they could manage."

"You said it, _if_."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**

Okay, so I have an extra planned for this called, "A Week in Hell," that will be a day-to-day breakdown of what happened in the week that Hisoka and Pandora spent together in the island. So, if anyone has suggestions as to what you'd like to read, please let me know and I might just write it in!


End file.
